


A World Away

by Iwantmyburd



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Gen, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-11-22 22:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 115,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11389539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iwantmyburd/pseuds/Iwantmyburd
Summary: An amnesiac finds himself in a strange new world, with only a memory of a memory of his life before. His quest to survive and find his homeland becomes irreversibly entangled with the events that will define the generation. When you've lost everything, is it better to try to reclaim an old life, or to build a new one with what you have? Third-person self-insert.





	1. Blank Slate

** Author Notes: **

**Good morning! Call me Burd.**

**This is a story I started over on FFN last August, and a friend I made there recommended that I post it here as well. So, here it is!**

**Feedback is always appreciated - likes, dislikes, critiques, suggestions, anything that can help me improve future chapters.**

**Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy _A World Away._**

_Chapter 1: Blank Slate_

It was a still spring night with a clear sky under a waxing moon.

A low plateau stood over the dunes, with a compound nestled in a large hollow that stretched from its feet to its crown. There was no sign of any life, except for one: a young man lying on the sand a stone's throw away from the compound's walls. A few sets of footprints were clustered around the doors, and one set led away into the night, but there weren't any going to or from the spot where he lay.

He didn't move for some time. When at last he began to stir, his movements were slow and sluggish. He felt like his mind was full of mud he had to slog through in order to get anywhere.

_What… happened?_ He moved to push himself up and groaned at a throbbing pain in the back of his head. Opening heavy-lidded eyes, he blinked a few times until he regained focus and could see the stars glistening overhead. _I shouldn't be outside… I should be… Uh… My family's expecting me… Yeah. I need to get to them. But…_ He finally sat up, hissing as the pain in his head redoubled at the movement, and looked around. _Where are they?_

_Where am_ I?

At this point, he noticed the building at the foot of the plateau. It was big, wider than it was tall, and appeared to be round in shape with a flat dome roof. He couldn't tell for certain. It was lit only by the moonlight; there weren't any windows, lights, or fires to be seen on, in, or around it.

_Are they in there?_ he wondered.

Standing up took a bit more effort. His head throbbed persistently, and he had some trouble coordinating his limbs. _Must have hit my head…_

When he had regained his footing, the man approached the building. Looking at it again, he saw what appeared to be a doorway and a few short, broad steps set between two square columns jutting out from the side of the building. The shifting sand and his head injury made his short walk to the building unsteady, but when he tried to go up the steps to the door, he fell with a yelp to his hands and knees on the cold, hard… Well, it wasn't wood, stone, concrete, or anything else he recognized, but whatever it was, it was hard and cold, and it hurt.

Struggling to his feet once more, he advanced carefully up the steps; once at the top, he trotted as quickly as he dared to the doors. He stopped and studied them for a moment. They were unfamiliar to him – _But why wouldn't they be if I can't remember where I am?_

This thought was like a stone dropped into still water to his mind, sending out ever-expanding ripples that grew into waves that threatened to throw his consciousness into turmoil. As if that wasn't enough, his entire body began to resonate with this mental storm; his heartbeat quickened, his knees weakened, a pit formed in his stomach, and he started quivering all over. Up until this point, he had been too groggy and confused to consider the implications of his situation. Now he was thinking more clearly, and he began to repeat to himself: _I don't know where I am. I don't remember how I got here. I don't know where home is._

_I don't remember._

_I don't know._

_I don't remember._

With each iteration, he drew closer to the brink of panic, and he would have gone over the edge if not for a second thought: a still voice inside himself that didn't silence his turmoil, but quieted it until it was reduced to a murmur that, though ever present, would not cripple his mind.

_All is not lost. You're still alive. You still have memory of your family. You don't know if they are to be found or not. You won't find out if you lose control of yourself now – it's all you can control. All will be well, but first, set aside your fear and MOVE._

Thus motivated, he shook his head as if to clear it, looked at the doors again, and knocked.

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there? I need help!"

Then he waited. There was no movement or sound from the building; it was still and silent as one in a deep slumber.

Three more times the young man knocked and called out, and no one answered. _Is it abandoned, then?_ He tried pushing on the doors, since they had no knobs or handles, but they did not so much as budge at his attempted entry.

After half an hour of trying to get inside, he decided it could not be done: not there and then, at any rate. Turning from the doors, he looked out from the porch across the shadowy dunes before him. _What now?_ he wondered.

Deserts are often understood as being hot places, but anyone who has spent much time in one – or done the right research about them – knows that after sundown, even the most arid desert can suddenly be too cold for someone to stay out in the open. This young man was one of those people, and he noticed that the air was growing chill.

_I need to find my family. But first I need to find shelter._ With that, he struck out into the darkness, uncertainly at first, but settling into a comfortable yet brisk stride to keep warm. He didn't have any particular direction in mind, but figured it would be best to walk in more or less a straight line until he saw a sign of possible shelter.

He did so for a number of hours, dulling the pain of his loss of memory by thinking only about his current task. He walked under the moon and star-lit sky, sometimes over the dunes and sometimes alongside them as he kept his chosen course. He did not encounter any other living thing, but he could hear them sometimes, fierce sounds of beasts off in the distance, or on the other side of a sand hill he passed by. They were loud, unfamiliar, and threatening, and he always hurried away when they were too close for his comfort. But whether because the creatures were otherwise occupied or because of the man's light step escaping their notice, nothing approached him as he walked.

As the night wore on and the temperature dropped, the miles began taking their toll. His previously impressive stride was now slow and fatigued, and he felt tired, cold, and parched. New worries sprang up to hijack his thoughts, worries for his very survival. _Water and warmth,_ he thought to himself as he panted and shivered. _Need both. There's none out here. I need to get to a city or town, or I'm gonna d– hold on._

At that moment a flicker of motion off to the side of his path caught his eye. He stopped and turned, searching for the source. He saw nothing but the dunes in front of him and the stars and moon overhead. He was about to continue on when he saw it again – he was sure this time.

A light was shining low in the sky, between two sand dunes beside his path. He had mistaken it for a star on the horizon, but it was flickering much too erratically for that, and he thought he saw shadows passing in front of it.

_A fire! Where there's a fire, there's people, and where there's people, there's water._ With new hope that he would, in fact, survive the night, he started again, trudging between the dunes toward the strangers' camp.


	2. Strangers

_ Chapter 2: Strangers _

"Wake up!"

Lloyd gasped as he was abruptly slapped out of his sleep. He had a sword halfway out of his sheath before he realized Kratos had woken him.

Returning his sword to his place, he blinked and looked around. It wasn't morning yet – not for several more hours, as far as he could tell – yet everyone else was already awake and fully dressed. Professor Sage and Genis were standing by Colette in the shadows beyond the fire's light.

Returning his attention to Kratos standing over him, Lloyd yawned as he tried to speak. "Ahh- what's going on?" he asked.

"Shh! Someone's coming out of the desert," Kratos hissed, pointing into the darkness opposite Collette, Raine and Genis.

Lloyd sat up, now fully alert. "Desians?" he growled.

"I don't know. It looks like there's only one, but we're not taking any chances out here." Kratos grasped Lloyd's arm and pulled him up to his feet. "Follow my lead. If he attacks, we kill him." With that the mercenary drew his sword and moved to the edge of the camp to intercept the intruder.

Lloyd scowled, retrieved his swords from his scabbards – which he had removed with his outer clothes for sleep – and followed. The combination of being woken up in the middle of the night, getting ordered around by Kratos (in his stupid condescending voice), and the possibility of a Desian attack had fouled his mood. He silently hoped it  _was_  an attack; he could take out his frustration on some enemy and feel no worse for it.

Moving to Kratos' side, Lloyd peered into the darkness and spotted the cause of the alarm. A lone figure was shuffling toward them, hunched over, arms folded over the chest.

"Doesn't really  _look_  like an attack," he muttered, keeping his eyes on the stranger.

"Either he means us no harm, or it's a well thought-out trap," Kratos replied. "We need to be ready for anything. Are you?"

"Hmph." Lloyd had no other comeback.

A few minutes passed and the wanderer still hadn't reached the camp, to Lloyd's frustration. His initial anger had passed, and now he just wanted to get this business overwith. He would not have admitted it to anyone, but this journey was turning out to be more difficult than he had imagined. Between all the traveling, the fight with Ktugach at the Triet Ruins, and the encounter with the Sand Worm that day, the whole thing was beginning to wear on him.

Glancing back at the others waiting in the shadows, Lloyd could see that they too were missing their sleep.  _As if Colette hasn't suffered enough already,_  he thought as he saw her troubled expression.  _First the fight, then her illness, and now_ this _guy barges in while she's resting!_  He returned his focus to the intruder, who was now maybe a bowshot away. His grip on his swords tightened, and he quivered as his anger flared up again.  _Move it, you snail! Let's finish this already!_

* * *

The wanderer's chattering teeth were proving to be a hazard to his own tongue, and the sand finding its way into his shoes added to his discomfort in a way that would have been meaningless if not for his other pains. He looked up again, and saw that he was closer still to the inviting warmth of the fire.  _Almost there_ _,_  he told himself, warding off any thought of just laying down where he stood.  _Just a bit more. Then I can rest._

When the stranger was about ten meters away, he suddenly quailed. He had already seen the two men standing between him and the fire, but only now did he notice their weapons, and the fact that they were watching him. He looked from the flickering flames back to the cold, dark desert behind him, and then back to the swordsmen who barred his way.  _I could try somewhere else… but this desert is huge! Even if there are any other people camped out here, what are my chances of finding them?_ He took a breath and started moving again.  _No matter. I need to at least try here first._

_But why do they have swords?_

_And what's with their hair?_

Stepping into the outer fringes of the firelight, he untucked his right arm from his chest and raised it in greeting. "Hello," he said, hardly noticing that his voice cracked in his dry throat.

"Who are you!" barked the man on the right, the taller of the two, and he leveled his large, two-handed sword at him.

He threw up his hands and stepped back, eyes wide. "Matt!"  _I remember my name?... I remember my name!_  "My name is Matthew. But I go by Matt, usually."

"Matt?" the second swordsman – dual-wielding smaller, curved swords – asked, and to Matt's surprise he sounded more like a teenager. "You mean like a doormat?"

That remark made him forget his fear for a moment.  _Yeah_ , _haven't heard_ that _one befo- oh, wait. I guess I wouldn't know._  "Sure, why not?" Matt answered, annoyed nonetheless.

The first man closed his eyes for a second and sighed. "And what are you doing here, Matthew?" he continued, and took a slow, deliberate step forward.

Matt took a similar step backward. "I need help," he admitted. "I've been walking for hours. I'm cold, I'm thirsty, and… I'm lost."

The younger swordsman was taken aback, but the older man narrowed his eyes. Matt shrank back uncomfortably.  _If he doesn't believe me, he could just say so… You know what? No. They don't want me here; I'll just go._  And he had just begun to turn away and do so when a new voice – a woman's – broke the silence:

"You're a full day's walk from the nearest town. How did you get all the way out here?"

_Will they believe me?_   "… I don't know," Matt finally answered. "I think I hit my head or something… I don't know where I am or how I got here."

"You're in the Triet Desert," the woman's voice responded. While she was still speaking, Raine stepped into the light of the fire with Genis and Colette, curiosity overcoming their caution.

The five companions looked over the newcomer, and he did so to them. Each party was equally intrigued and confused by the other: the Sylvaranti by the wandering amnesiac because of his outlandish garb and sudden appearance in the wilderness in the dead of night. He wore his dark brown hair close-cropped and had a short, neatly trimmed goatee. His simple, short-sleeved, blue-and-green striped shirt, baggy knee-length white shorts, and…  _strange_  shoes made him appear more ready for a day of playing at the beach, or even relaxing at home, than for a trek through the desert.

Matt, on the other hand, had a gut feeling that people do not normally dress or wear their hair like these campers did; he had no other reason to think them strange. He looked at each of them in turn, taking in the wild varieties of their physical appearances.  _Maybe I went to a different country and forgot about it,_  he reasoned. That particular thought did nothing for the worries still churning in his mind.

The big swordsman, however, was not satisfied that Matt wasn't a threat just yet. "Are there any others with you?"

"No," he answered. "You all are the first people I've seen since I woke up."

The dual-wielder's expression softened, and he lowered his blades. "We'll help you," he said.

The big swordsman turned his head to him, keeping his sword trained on Matt's throat. "Lloyd, that's not-"

A young blonde woman stepped forward and spoke up, eyes fierce but voice kind. "We've got to! There isn't anyone else out here - he'll die if we don't help him."

The swordsman returned his gaze to Matt, face stern but otherwise unreadable.

Matt could hear his own racing heartbeat in his ears.

At last he sheathed his sword and folded his arms. "Very well-"

Before the man could finish his thought, the blonde girl ran up to grab Matt's hand and pulled him into their midst, closer to the fire. "I'm Colette," she said cheerfully, and proceeded to introduce the others: Lloyd, the teenaged dual-wielding swordsman with the most outrageous hairdo of the bunch; Genis, Lloyd and Colette's best friend, a young boy who was apparently an elf; his considerably older sister, Professor Raine Sage, their schoolteacher; and Kratos, the big swordsman, a stoic mercenary.

As this was happening, Matt was given some water, food, and a blanket. He ate and drank sparingly –  _They probably weren't expecting to have to share with a sixth person,_  he reasoned – but he felt much better for it. However, once he was done, Kratos sat nearby and began questioning him.

"What would you have us do?" he asked. Matt knew full well that any variant of "I don't know" would be one of many unacceptable answers.

He took his time pondering this, then.  _I need to find my family… But will I even recognize them? Hold on… I don't_ need _to, not as long as_ they _recognize me!_

Turning this over in his head a few times, he finally looked up at where Professor Raine was standing. "You said there's a town nearby?"

"Yes," she answered, "the town of Triet." Matt realized she had been staring intently at him the entire time.

He broke eye contact with her and looked back at Kratos. "Can one of you help me look for my family there?"

"We would be backtracking a full day just to get you to Triet," the mercenary answered. "Do you remember your family?"

"Wait, that's not true!" Lloyd objected. "We need to go back for Noishe anyway, remember?"

Matt hesitated; after Kratos' abrasiveness, the follow-up question had caught him off-guard. "Well, not really… But they should still recognize me, right? I just need to make sure I try everywhere – every _one_  – once we get there." As far as he could tell from Kratos' blank expression, this answer was satisfying enough.

Genis, however, had just once concern. "What if they aren't there?" he asked.

The possibility stirred up the waves in Matt's mind; he had been trying to avoid thinking about just that. Lowering his head, he fought to keep calm.  _What if they aren't there? What if I never see them again?_

After a minute of intense internal struggle, he managed to assert control of himself again, and he looked up to see that every eye was on him: some concerned, some suspicious.

Matt sighed and looked at the ground, and he went with the answer he had told himself. He tried to sound carefree about it, but suspected he failed miserably. Indeed, Kratos and Raine in particular could see right through his nonchalant front.

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it, I guess."

Kratos nodded. "You all sleep now," he stated. "The night is growing old, and we have a long way to go tomorrow. And Matthew, don't forget anything else tonight. I have more questions to ask you in the morning."

Everyone agreed with this suggestion, and soon the others were dozing again. Matt was, as far as he could tell, the last to fall asleep, apart from Kratos. The mercenary sat almost unmoving at the edge of the camp, staring into the darkness beyond. Meanwhile, Matt was restless, and every time he opened his eyes and looked up, there he was, still and silent as a statue. He found the vigil both disquieting and comforting.

Eventually, though, his weariness outweighed his restlessness, and sleep took him.


	3. Setting Out

_Chapter 3: Setting Out_

"This is gonna be a piece of cake!"

Matt's eyes snapped open at the sound, and he was greeted with a blinding view of the sunrise.

"Ahh!" He immediately shut his eyes again, rolled off his side and onto his back, and sat up. As he tried to blink away the blue-green smear that obscured his vision, he noticed a series of loud noises nearby: shouts and grunts, metal striking some hard surface, and a hissing, clicking sound.

Dread overcame him. He felt as if his heart jumped up into his throat, and his stomach seemed to drop down from its rightful place. It was one of the creatures he had heard during his little walk the night before.

He shot up and whirled around. With broad daylight and a decent amount of sleep, he now noticed things he had completely overlooked the night before. The camp was inside a shallow hollow with only one way in, beside which lay an oasis. Matt had slept on this side of the camp. On the other, at the bottom of the bank encircling them, Lloyd, Kratos, and Genis were locked in combat with a trio of scorpions the size of German shepherds.

Matt screamed. The three others paid him no heed.

"Demon Fang!"

"Light Spear!"

"Get 'em! Wind blade!"

"Augh!"

"Don't overdo it. First aid!"

Everything in him was telling Matt to turn and run, but he found himself rooted in place, unable to look away. Aside from the fact that Lloyd and Kratos were moving faster than anyone using their weapons ought to, and the shockwaves they were attacking with, Genis had clearly summoned his own personal wind storm to hit the bugs. While playing with a stick-and-ball toy.

 _What on Earth?!_  Even as Matt thought it, Lloyd jumped and swung his sword upwards, flipping the last scorpion still standing into the air, and slammed the monster back to the ground with a second stroke. The weapon glowed as it struck.

" _Tiger Blade!_ "

Three bugs were down; one of them was lying in pieces in a puddle of fluids already vanishing into the sand.

Matt's knees turned to rubber and he sank to the ground, and a wave of nausea assailed him. "What just happened?" he moaned.

The three fighters turned, just now realizing that Matt had woken up. Lloyd grinned as he twirled his swords and sheathed them. "Hey, you're finally awake!" he called out. "Did you see that? It was pretty cool, right?" His cheerful expression faded when he saw Matt's queasy one. "Uh… Are you OK?"

Kratos studied Matt's face for a moment. "Either his meal last night didn't agree with him," he muttered so only Lloyd could hear, "or our battle upset him for some reason." Then, his gaze shifted and his eyes suddenly widened. "Behind you!" he shouted.

Matt felt something pinch his right ankle, and a loud hiss filled his ears.

" _AAAHHH!_ " He sprang to his feet and tried to run. The thing holding his leg didn't budge, though, and he fell with limbs splayed out on the sand.

He lifted his head and craned his neck to see behind him. A fourth scorpion had his ankle in a vice-like grip. He could see all six of its eyes staring blankly at him, the bristles sticking out of its body, and liquid dripping from the needle-like stinger on the end of its flexed, segmented tail.

Matt closed his eyes.  _That's it, then…_

The stinger plunged downward…

Matt felt something hit his back, and the pressure on his ankle was released.

_That… should have hurt more than it did._

He cracked one eye open. The scorpion was gone. Its stinger lay on the ground beside him, and a white ring was flying through the air. As he followed it with his eyes, it looped back the way it had come, straight to Colette's open hand.

She had just returned to the camp with Professor Raine, and even as she caught the first ring, she spun and threw a second one at the now stinger-less scorpion charging at her. The creature flinched when the chakram hit; before it could recover, Lloyd overtook it, sword in hand.

" _Sonic Thrust!_ " The air shimmered around the blade's path as he skewered the bug from back to front.

Its arms, legs, and tail crumpled, and it lay still.

Everyone gathered where Lloyd now stood. "Is everyone alright?" asked Raine, staff in hand to cast healing magic if needed.

Genis smiled and gave her a thumbs up with his free hand. "We're fine! I think Matt fainted, though."

Said Matt was lying on the ground and did not respond.

Kratos frowned when he noticed this. "I suppose we'll have to babysit him until we reach Triet. Lloyd, get some water to wake him up… Lloyd?"

Lloyd was having trouble removing his sword from the scorpion's corpse. "One… Second…" he grunted. He planted one foot on the body and pulled with both hands.

After watching this for a few seconds, Kratos went to get the water himself. Genis' grin widened. "Hey, Lloyd," he jeered, "maybe you could carve it into a scabbard and keep it as a trophy!"

"Shut up… Genis…" With one last heave, Lloyd's sword suddenly broke free of the carcass, causing him to nearly fall over backward. He sighed and sheathed it, then pointed to the first three scorpions. "They came down the bank and attacked us. This one" – he gestured to his sword's former captor – "snuck in through the entrance." Then he smiled at Colette. "That was an awesome shot! You cut its stinger clean off!"

Colette twirled both chakrams around her wrists and smiled in turn. "Thank you, Lloyd!"

Raine knelt beside Matt and pulled up his shirt to examine him. "He's unharmed." She glanced at the back of his head, then felt through his hair with her fingers. "There's a bit of a bump here," she said, prodding a spot on his scalp that had swelled up. "He must be suffering from retrograde amnesia as a result of a head injury."

Lloyd scratched his head. "Retro...grade?"

"It means he lost memories from before he hit his head," Genis explained as he stood beside his sister.

Colette knelt down to see for herself. "Can you heal him, Professor?"

Raine shook her head. "My healing arts use mana to accelerate natural healing processes," she explained. "The body has no remedy for damage to the mind, so restoring memories is beyond my power. I could reduce the swelling, but that will heal just fine on its own."

Lloyd joined them, just as Kratos returned with a skin of water. "Will he be OK?" Lloyd asked.

"I don't know for certain, but I believe so," the professor said. "There was no evidence of lasting injury beyond the amnesia when he found us last night."

With that she flipped Matt onto his back, then got up and stood aside. Kratos stood over him and poured water onto his face.

Matt woke up with a gasp. Lloyd and Colette were kneeling on either side peering down at him; Professor Raine was standing by his feet, with Genis beside her; and Kratos was standing by his head, so his face appeared upside-down.

Matt sat up and looked at each of them with a blank expression. "Did I oversleep?" he asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Raine replied.

Matt sighed and tried to wipe the water from his face with his sand-covered hands. "Sorry about that."

Genis cocked his head. "Uh, Matt... Did you get amnesia again?"

Matt frowned at him. "Again? What do you mean, 'again'?"

"We just had a fight with some monsters, and you fainted!"

Matt realized what he was talking about, but that only confused him more. "What? No, no, that was a dream - it had to be! Giant bugs? Glowing swords?  _Magic?_  That had to be a..."

At this point, Genis and Lloyd moved from their places and pointed at the dead scorpion a few feet away.

Matt's confusion turned to horror. "... No, no, no, that can't be right..." He put his head in his hands and began mumbling to himself. "That's not how the world works. No monsters. No magic. They're not real."

Colette, however, was greatly amused. "You dreamed about something that really happened? That sounds boring! I like dreams where I can breathe underwater and do other fun things."

Matt stared at her in disbelief. The others just gave a collective sigh.

* * *

Before breaking camp that morning, Kratos had a few questions for Matt about what exactly had happened to him between finding himself in the desert and stumbling upon their camp the night before. Matt answered as best he could; everyone reacted with surprise at his description of the large building he had seen, and Raine had a private word with Kratos immediately after the questioning.

"He just described the Desian base we had to rescue Lloyd from," Raine said in low tones.

"Indeed," Kratos replied. "But it has occurred to me that if they had sent him, he wouldn't want to arouse suspicion needlessly-"

"So why mention the base at all?" Raine finished. "I suppose you're right. But why would the Desians just leave him be when they could put him to work on a human ranch?" She kept her other, more pressing suspicions to herself.

"Just another question waiting to be answered, but we don't have time to worry about it now. Regenerating the world is of greater importance than one man's plight," Kratos stated.

* * *

Matt learned a great many things from his new companions as they walked toward Triet that morning. Each of them took turns telling him about mana, the energy all living things need to survive; how it can be used to power special attacks, called Techs; its applications in healing magic, and in manipulating the elements; the shortage of it the world was currently experiencing; the journey they were taking to restore it; and the Desians who opposed them. With each tidbit of information, they hoped to jog his memory, but to no avail. At the very least, he caught on quickly and didn't need anything repeated or elaborated on more than once.

After a few hours, at a point where everyone was within earshot of everyone else, Matt scratched his head, wincing as he touched the bump on it. "Let me see if I got this right," he said to Genis, who had spoken to him last. "When the mana seals are broken, more mana is released into the world, and Colette takes another step toward becoming an angel?"

The boy smiled and nodded. "That's right! Breaking the seals awakens the Summon Spirits, and that restores mana to the world."

Matt felt pleased with himself.  _It's starting to make some sense, at least... even if it is bizarre._  He also observed that Genis was most at home when having matter-of-fact conversations like this one.

He decided to indulge the elf-boy some more. "OK, so what does Colette becoming an angel accomplish?"

"It seals away the Desians, as well as the monsters that have appeared."

"How?"

Genis opened his mouth to answer, but his expression became uncertain and he closed it. Kratos, who had mostly stayed at the front of the group and said little up to that point, looked back at Matt over his shoulder. "If you break down any phenomenon to its simplest form," he said, "you will find it is more difficult to understand, let alone explain. We are more concerned with what happens during the World Regeneration than with how and why it happens as it does."

Matt took this as a poorly disguised "shut up." He grudgingly obliged. The mercenary did not really talk much, but when he did, he came across as both intelligent and aloof, a combination that was quickly getting on Matt's nerves.

Lloyd gave Kratos an angry glare, then looked back to the group's newest member. "Does any of that sound familiar?"

Matt frowned and shook his head. "Nope. Sorry."

The teen turned away, clearly frustrated.  _It's my problem, Lloyd, not yours. Why does it make you so mad?_

"No memories..." Colette said sadly. "I can't even imagine what that would be like."

Matt furrowed his brow. He wanted to say something along the lines of, "Good, because it's awful!" but he wasn't inclined to be so harsh toward the young Chosen. He saw her as the most naive - or was the word "oblivious?" - of the group, but she was also the warmest and the kindest. So he took time to come up with a more polite answer for her.

"It's like... I know I had them, but they're gone now. Things that have happened, people I knew, stuff I used to know... It's like there are empty shelves and picture frames where they should be."

He caught himself desperately trying to recall something,  _anything_ , to fill this void in his mind, and forced himself to stop and focus on walking. He was beginning to tire, and keeping up now required some effort; the unsteady terrain did not help in this regard.  _Stupid sand..._  The heat he could manage, the sun did not bother him courtesy of the borrowed blanket he wore as a cloak, but the sand was going to drive him up the nearest wall.

"You're lucky, you know," Professor Raine commented from behind him.

Matt looked at her, not sure he had heard that right. "How so?"

"Most amnesia patients only lose their more recent memories," she explained. "But people who lose more than that, like you have, tend to forget absolutely everything, including speech and basic motor functions. You wouldn't have survived if that had happened to you."

Matt shuddered and looked down. Professor Raine had a point, but he got the idea it was not meant to be of any comfort.

Lloyd suddenly perked up. "Hey, Professor," he said, "you said you can't bring Matt's memories back because they're part of his mind instead of his body, right?"

Matt looked up, confused. "She said that? When?"

Raine raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking, Lloyd?"

"If your healing arts can only heal physical injury, maybe someone else can heal his mind and get him to remember everything!"

Genis stifled a laugh, and Raine gave a wry smile. "Your reasoning is flawed, but you might be on to something," she conceded.

Without so much as turning his head, Kratos spoke up. "The fortune teller in Triet might be of assistance."

"Heh. Didn't know you were still paying attention," Matt chided.  _Wow. If looks could kill..._

"Ugh, not the fortune teller again!" Genis groaned. "She ripped us off last time we saw her!"

"Then it can be our last resort," Raine said firmly. "We'll see if anyone in town recognizes Matt first. If nobody does, we'll see if the fortune teller can unlock his memories and, if she does, arrange for him to get home."

"That's a great idea!" Colette exclaimed. "If anyone can do it, she can!"

"Don't I get a say in this?" Matt asked, finding he disliked other people talking about his future like this. The thought of a stranger peeking inside his head was not appealing, either.

Kratos suddenly stopped and turned around to face the group. "Do you object to this plan?" he asked.

"Well, no," Matt said, a bit flustered, "but-"

"Then that's your say." The mercenary turned around again, ignoring Matt's indignant reaction.

Kratos spent a minute studying his surroundings - sight, sound, smell, and touch. They had made good time so far, despite Matt's slow pace. However, an east-to-west breeze had picked up, and he saw clouds on the horizon.  _Brilliant_ , he thought. The shift in weather would not be all that dangerous on its own, but it would bring further delay on their progress - a fact that, unbeknownst to the others, he felt deeply conflicted about.

"A sandstorm is coming," he announced to the group. "By the look of it, it will be here by sundown. We should try to reach Triet by then; we'll have to stop when it hits regardless. Let's go."

So they started again. Matt knew he should be glad to be getting closer to town and, thus, to finding his family, but apprehension gnawed at him. Not concerning his companions, he was sure of that. They all had their quirks, but that wasn't what was bothering him. He would say later that the cause of his discomfort was a premonition that the long walk to Triet was just the first step of the journey that awaited him.


	4. Desert Town

_Chapter 4: Desert Town_

Nightfall on the town of Triet brought with it a fierce sandstorm. The wind howled as it passed through the streets and alleys, lightning flashed back and forth across the night sky, and everything that had been left outside was pelted with sand. Not that much was left outside; the townspeople had been diligent. The vendors' wares were safely packed away, the houses' windows were boarded up and doors bolted against the wind, and almost everyone made it safely indoors before the storm hit. The only damage that would be caused was: the town's buildings becoming even more weathered in appearance, which the citizens were proud of anyway; sand falling into the oasis, which would be cleared up by the pool's guardians with a simple spell; and young children (and thus their parents) losing sleep due to the strange, scary sounds outside.

Danger of monsters and brigands was exceedingly low during such storms, so the gate was most always left open when they struck. This way, stragglers could return home and travelers could take shelter. The latter group invariably flocked to the Mirage Inn, built near the town's entrance to better accommodate them; the staff there were undoubtedly the happiest in town to see sandstorms coming. Like on other such nights, the common room was full of merchants, pilgrims, drifters, and others, all expressing their surprise at the desert's onslaught and padding the pockets of the workers serving them.

"I've never seen anything like it!" one businessman exclaimed to whoever would listen. "How am I supposed to get my potions to Iselia if we're all buried alive here?" He accepted and paid for another drink without even acknowledging his waiter.

A clergyman in his audience sighed, growing tired of the other man's ranting. "You exaggerate," he said. "This storm is a bit worse than usual, but it will blow over before morning. You should be more concerned about your destination; I've heard the village had some trouble with the Desians recently."

Those listening began to murmur to each other at this news. The merchant slammed his empty mug on the table, recapturing everyone's attention. "Iselia in trouble with Desians? Isn't there a, uh..." he snapped his fingers as he searched for the right word: "...a treaty between them? You're full of crap."

The other patrons who heard this gasped. Speaking to a man of the church this way was inexcusable, even if the offender had clearly had more drink than was good for him.

The clergyman, however, only narrowed his eyes; even his tone of voice did not change. "There was a non-aggression treaty between Iselia and the Desians, it is true," he said slowly. "But a week ago, we at the House of Salvation north of here received word from two former residents of the village that the treaty was broken, and the Desians ransacked Iselia."

One dismayed pilgrim from Izoold asked, "But what could have happened to prompt such an attack?" His eyes widened with worry. "Is the Chosen safe?"

The priest raised a hand to quell the commotion that ensued. When all was reasonably quiet again, he continued. "I don't know the details, and it would not be prudent to start rumors. What I  _do_  know is that Iselia was attacked by the Desians, and two young men were banished in the wake of the destruction. As for the Chosen-"

Three loud, heavy knocks on the door reverberated through the room and silenced all conversation. The storm had begun in earnest an hour ago, and the sky was dark; who could still be out there? An eager waitress hurried to find out, unbolting the door and cracking it open just wide enough to let the new customers inside.

Six figures hurried inside, one after another: a tall, dark purple-clad man with a sword at his hip; an elf maiden in an orange mage robe; a blonde girl wearing white and lavender; a teenaged boy with two swords, spiky brown hair, and a very loud red jacket; a second, much younger elf with a blue shirt and shorts; and, last of all, a young man wearing a blanket over his clothes, tied over his nose and mouth. The door was closed fast behind them.

When the clergyman laid eyes on Colette, he suddenly laughed and clapped his hands. "Why," he cried out in a loud voice, "there's the Chosen and her entourage now!"

The gathered patrons erupted into cheers and greetings for the guests. Many of them tried to rush toward Colette, wanting to congratulate her, ask questions, or make requests, and for a moment Raine and Kratos were overwhelmed trying to keep them a respectful distance away. Matt found himself pressed against the wall near the door as the crowd grew and shifted around him. Between his efforts to get some breathing room and the clamoring of the people, he only noticed a handful of what was said:

"Did the Desians hurt you?"

"Is the World Regeneration still going to happen?"

"Chosen One! Would you like to buy this pair of boots for your journey? I can give you a good price!"

"Chosen, please! My brother is very sick! Will you help him?"

Only now did it dawn on Matt that he was in the company of a celebrity.  _Wow. This Regeneration journey is serious business._

A shrill whistle sounded above the din. The crowd quieted down and looked yet again to the priest, who was standing on his chair with two fingers to his mouth. Lowering them, he addressed the throng once more:

"I'm sure you all have something you would like to say to the Chosen, my friends. But look! It's clear she and her companions are weary from the day's travel. Be patient; let them get situated first, and then she may choose to speak with you."

Murmurs of agreement went up from the people, and they began returning to their seats. The drunken merchant, however, was tired of people stealing all the attention from him, and he staggered through the parting crowd toward the Chosen's party with a belligerent scowl.

"The Chosen, eh?" he asked, slurring his words. "What exactly do you plan to do about this storm, then?"

 _Definitely smashed,_  Matt thought to himself with disgust. Similar impressions ran through the others' heads. All except Colette herself, who just smiled at him.

"Oh, I don't know if I'll have the power to stop the sandstorm," she said cheerfully. "But I promise I'll see what I can do!"

" _Colette!_ " Lloyd was appalled by this exchange. "You don't have to answer this-"

" _No!_ " the businessman yelled. "Do something about it  _now!_ "

Lloyd's temper flared; drunk or no, he was not about to let anyone get away with talking to Colette like that. "How dare you!" He clenched his fist and took a step forward. He ran into Kratos' outstretched right arm.

The mercenary had moved between Colette and the angry drunk. His mood was sour to begin with, and he was singularly unimpressed with the display the other man was putting on, but was willing to give him one more chance to correct it. "That's no way to speak to the Chosen," he said calmly. "Stand down. You're not in your right mind."

The only sound was the howling wind outside; all eyes were on the two men.

The merchant hesitated and turned slightly. For a moment it looked like he might leave peacefully, to Matt, Lloyd, and Kratos' silent disappointment.

Then he curled his hand into a fist and took a clumsy swing at Kratos' face.

In one deft movement, Kratos sidestepped the blow, drew his sword in his left hand with a reverse grip, and clocked his attacker on the side of the head with the crossguard.

Matt winced and rubbed his own head as the man slumped to the floor, unconscious.  _He's gonna feel that tomorrow. Well, that or the liquor._

Kratos sheathed his sword and stepped around the man's body to speak with the innkeeper, and the others followed. Matt paused when two of the workers came to carry the man to his room.

"How many drinks did you all give him, anyway?" he asked as they picked him up.

They looked at each other uncomfortably and didn't answer.

"That's what I thought," Matt grunted, and then he hurried to catch up with the others.

* * *

As they had the last time they were in Triet, the Chosen's party was given three rooms to sleep in; before anyone settled in, though, Kratos had everyone meet in the room he intended to use.

He stood in front of the door, arms folded, and faced the others scattered around the room, lit only by a few flickering candles. All present showed various levels of fatigue.

"We could have avoided all that if we had gotten here sooner," Kratos said curtly over the sound of the whistling wind outside. He gave Matt a pointed look as he did so.

Matt returned the glare in kind as he sat and unlaced his shoes. "Blame me all you want," he griped. "I can't help that I'm slow. I don't think I've ever walked that far at once before, so I'm just glad I even made it here." He removed his shoes and dumped their contents into a waste bin. "I don't like sand..." he grumbled to himself.

" _Anyway_ ," Kratos continued, "we need to discuss our plans for tomorrow."

Lloyd nodded. "Right. We need to help Matt look for his family."

Genis shifted on the bed where he sat. "Well, we don't  _all_  need to go with him, do we?"

"I think it'd be more fun that way," Colette said with a shrug, smiling with her eyes closed. "We could all meet his family when we find them. Maybe they can tell us how he got lost."

"It would be more prudent for us to split up," Raine asserted. "Aside from helping Matthew on his way, we need to replenish our supplies before we attempt to cross the desert. Besides, now that the people know you're here, Colette, it's best that you avoid going out in the open until we leave."

"It's possible we will have to search the entire town," said Kratos. "I believe it will take the least time if I go with him myself."

"Then Genis and I can go take care of the shopping," Lloyd volunteered.

Genis, meanwhile, wondered if he was the only one who remembered that Lloyd had a wanted poster with his name on it just outside and would be in just as much danger as Colette.

"That's a good idea," Raine concurred. "I'll put together a list of things we need, and in the morning you and Genis can go buy them while Kratos helps Matthew look for his family."

Genis scratched his head. "But what if Matt's family  _isn't_ here? What will we do then?"

"Well, we can't just leave him, can we?" Colette asked, suddenly becoming serious.

"As opposed to bringing him along? We've gotten him to the safety of civilization," Kratos pointed out. "We're already exceeding any obligation by helping him search."

Lloyd mulled over the matter for a moment. "Well... I'd feel bad about leaving him stranded if his family isn't here in Triet," he said half to himself. "Would it be too much for him to come with us and look for them as we go?"

Raine, more wary than intrigued by Matt's mysterious origins, interjected here, eyes hard. "The fight in the Triet Ruins was just a sample of the dangers we will face on this journey. Our road is a perilous one, and we can't lightly ask others to come with us on it, even for a little while. I'm sure Matthew would rather take safer ways if they are available - is that right?" She directed the question at Matt himself.

Matt, however, had turned his thoughts inward and completely missed the last two or so minutes of conversation. He knew Kratos was right; the group had had to slow down for him in the later part of the day, so if anyone was to blame for them getting caught in the storm, it was him. He felt disgusted with himself.  _And then there was the crowd of people... If we had gotten here at the same time they had, they might not have noticed us, and all that drama wouldn't have happened._ _Ugh... I gotta get into better shape._

From there, a tangential thought led him to try to recall the faces he had seen downstairs, and he wondered if he should have begun his search in the common room as soon as they had arrived.  _Nah,_  he decided.  _They were mostly travelers. And it's pretty obvious I'm no traveler. But then... how did I end up out in the middle of nowhere?_

" _Matthew._ "

He jumped as Raine's suddenly raised voice yanked him out of his musings. "Sorry, sorry," he said quickly. "I was thinking."

A knock at the door saved him from the stinkeye that followed.

Visibly irritated, Kratos turned and cracked it open. A few words were exchanged between him and the visitor, and then he opened the door all the way to admit the priest from downstairs into the room. The clergyman first greeted Colette, Raine, and Kratos, and then apologized for starting the commotion upon their arrival.

"I'm afraid I forgot myself for a moment," he explained. "I was just so surprised and overjoyed to see you here, Chosen! That you've made it this far is commendable."

"We'll make it much further than Triet before our journey is done," Kratos said dryly.

"Regardless, it's good to see you here as well, Father Thomas," Raine commented, flashing an impatient look Kratos as she spoke.

"Indeed! And after what happened to the last Chosen, your progress should not be taken for granted, Colette." Although Thomas was speaking to Colette, Lloyd was pretty sure he noticed him briefly glance at Kratos at the word "not."

 _There's been more than one Chosen?_  Matt wondered.

Colette, for her part, was absolutely beaming. "Thank you, Father!" she said cheerfully. "I won't let you or anyone else down!"

Thomas then turned to Lloyd and Genis with a knowing smile. "It's also good to see that our two young vagabonds found you safely."

Lloyd finally remembered where he had seen him before and grinned. "Hey Pastor! Thank you again for letting us stay at the House of Salvation."

"What brings you out here to Triet?" asked Genis.

The priest's expression became a little grim. "I was going to lead a pilgrimage to Palmacosta, and then on to Asgard," he said mournfully, "but upon arriving here, we learned there has been no passage across the sea for weeks. So we are going to travel this continent and visit the farmers and other such folk instead." He smiled again. "We will offer them our assistance in their labors, as well as our prayers and the extra food we had prepared for the Asgard pilgrimage."

"Wait," Genis blurted out. "You mean no ships are sailing right now?" He turned to his sister. "Then how are we going to-"

Raine silenced him with a swat to the back of the head. Without missing a beat, she asked Thomas, "Is there any way you could take one more with you on this pilgrimage?"

He laughed in response. "I don't see why not, but sending your brother away for a slip of the tongue would seem unjust punishment."

Genis was mortified. " _What?_ "

"No way!" Lloyd shouted. "We can't leave Genis behind!"

Kratos didn't let this go any further. He cleared his throat loudly. "She speaks of our newest companion here." He gestured to Matt.

Thomas had to do a double take. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "I hadn't noticed you there. Please, accept my apologies. Who might you be?"

"I'm Matthew." He climbed to his feet. His head no longer hurt from moving around; now, his tired legs and feet announced their disapproval to him. He sighed as the initial wave of pain passed. "That's about all I remember."

Raine explained the situation and their plan to Thomas, who listened intently and occasionally gave looks of sympathy to Matt. "If his family isn't here in Triet, the next best place to search would be the countryside," the professor concluded.

"Agreed," the priest said quietly, as if speaking to himself. Turning once again to Matt, he smiled warmly. "Well," he said, "we would be glad to help you in this, Matthew. All I would ask is that you, in turn, help us in our efforts. And just think - along the way, we could help you re-learn all the knowledge of the Church of Martel you've lost. So, if your family is not here, will you join us?"

Even though Matt was reluctant to leave his current group - he enjoyed their company despite bad circumstances - and be handed off to strangers, the reasons for doing so were sound enough. It was highly unlikely he had come across the sea before losing his memory, and he would just slow down the others anyway. He was about to accept Thomas' offer. Then the still, small voice in his mind, the one that had encouraged him and saved him from panicking in the desert, spoke up.

_Don't go with him. Continue with Lloyd, Genis, Colette, Raine, and Kratos, if they will have you._

Matt blinked, confused at his own thoughts.  _Why the heck would I do that?_

_Listening to that voice helped you last time. It's your choice._

_... That's true._

"Well?"

Matt ignored Kratos; he grappled with himself in silence for about a minute. Finally, he looked down at the floor and quietly asked, "Can I think it over tonight?"

At that question, Raine was puzzled and her suspicions increased, Kratos' anger silently flared up, and Lloyd, Colette and Genis perked up, wondering what might come of this. Thomas just nodded. "Of course. My company will remain here in Triet tomorrow, and we will leave the following morning. Please, let me know your decision before then."

* * *

Raine stayed with Colette that night, and Genis opted to share a room with Lloyd, leaving Matt to sleep in Kratos' room. After the others had left, the mercenary said nothing to him except to tell him what time to be ready in the morning. Between the wind outside, his anticipation of the things the new day would bring, and the choice that he might have to make, the waves in Matt's mind were restless, and it took him a while to get to sleep. Upon waking up at daybreak he felt more tired in mind than he had been before. To top it all off, his legs were now both sore and stiff. An hour later, though, he and Kratos stood before one of Triet's sandstone houses.

A dog inside the house barked when Matt knocked on the door frame. A few rustling noises followed, and then the door opened and a middle-aged, weather-beaten man's face appeared. He looked at the two with an air of curiosity.

 _... What am I supposed to say?!_  Before Matt could think of something, the man asked them:

"Do I know you?"

Matt sighed. "Apparently not." With that he turned and walked on to the next house with Kratos. The man in the doorway watched them, wondering what they could be doing, then shrugged and closed the door.

Everywhere they went in Triet that morning, they got similar results. No one they met had ever seen Matt before, evidenced by their own admissions and the blank looks in their eyes when they beheld him. Each time he was turned away, he grew more downcast and more preoccupied with the decision that loomed ever closer over him. All the while, Kratos said nothing and betrayed no emotion concerning this turn of events; he clearly just wanted to get this done and move on.

When they had checked all the homes, they went on to the vendors and shopkeepers in the market, near the Mirage Inn; there, they encountered Lloyd and Genis buying food for the next leg of their journey.

"Once we're done here, we just need to go buy some medicine and things," Lloyd reported. "Then we were going to see if there are any good weapons here."

"I doubt you'll find anything you would deem better than the swords your father made for you," Kratos remarked. He glanced at the groceries the boys had picked out.  _Must we really have tomatoes?_

Lloyd grinned. "I know, but it's still fun to go look!"

Genis finished paying for the food and joined them. "Any luck so far?"

"No," Matt said glumly. "We've tried all the houses and most of the shops, plus the inn."

"Soon, there will be just the fortune teller left," said Kratos. "Then, I expect some decisions will have to be made."

Lloyd nodded sadly. "I hope you find them, Matt. Come by the inn before we leave, okay?"

"Yeah, Colette will want to say goodbye, and Raine will probably want to know where you're going," Genis added.

 _They will?_ "Uh, sure. I'll do that," said Matt.

After talking with the last of the vendors and not having any luck, Kratos led Matt back through town to a tent pitched beside the oasis. He gave him a pouch of money and stood by the canvas flap that served as a door.

Matt gulped, took a deep breath to try and calm himself, and entered.

The only light inside the tent was that which leaked through the canvas, and he couldn't see well at first. Before his eyes had adjusted, a voice on the other side of the tent called him. "Come in, come in!" it said. "Welcome to the house of fortune! What would you like me to divine for you?... Oh, you're not from here, are you? Wonderful! Where do you hail from?"

As the voice spoke, Matt's eyes adjusted to the low light, and he saw a woman sitting behind a low table draped with an elaborately patterned cloth, with a crystal ball on top. She herself hardly looked the part of a fortune teller: plainly clothed, perhaps Raine's age, and apparently quite happy to see him.

Matt blinked and fiddled with the pouch in his hand. "Um, actually, that's why I'm here," he stammered. "I don't remember. I hardly remember anything."

This piqued the woman's interest further. " _Really?_ " She folded her hands under her chin. "Do tell!"

Matt hesitated, then stepped forward until he stood behind the chair facing the woman. "All I know is that I have family somewhere. I was hoping you could help me get my memories back so I can find them."

The fortune teller frowned. "I can read thoughts that people have, but finding what is lost to the mind is far more difficult. That will be 200 Gald."

 _Gald?_  Matt sat down and poured his pouch's contents onto the table beside the crystal ball.  _Oh. That's Gald._

Seeing his blank stare, the woman took some of the coins and set them aside, then swept the rest back to him. "Put that away and let me see your hands," she directed.

Matt soon lost track of time as the fortune teller held his hands in hers, eyes closed and completely still. He looked around the tent for a while to pass the time, taking note of all the strange things kept in the House of Fortune. He had just spotted a particularly fantastic device he wanted to ask about when the fortune teller suddenly opened here eyes and gasped; she had gone white as a sheet.

Matt gaped at the sudden change, and he was filled with dread at the thought of what may have caused it. "Was that from one of my memories?"

"I'm sorry," she panted as she took something from a pouch on her belt. "Your memories are all but unreachable." She put the thing in her mouth and swallowed it; almost immediately, the color returned to her face, and she looked at Matt with remorse. "I got one memory back for you, but I don't think it's one you wanted. I'm sorry; I lack the power to bring back the rest."

Right on cue, an image appeared in his mind: a gray, yellow-faced bird.

_Sam! It's Sam! But... where is he? And where are my other memories? "Unreachable?" What does that even mean?!_

The fortune teller must have been able to see his disappointment. She put a hand on his. "Oh, cheer up!" she told him gently. "I'll give you a free fortune to make up for it. Let me see... Yes... You stand at a crossroads. What you seek may or may not be found along either path, but the road of greater risk holds greater reward."

* * *

"Did you get your memories back?" Kratos asked as Matt emerged from the tent.

Matt squinted in the bright sunlight.  _We tried everywhere and it's just now noon... Small town._  He sighed. "I have a pet bird named Sam. That's all. Even bringing that one back exhausted her."

The mercenary nodded. "Then have you decided what you will do next?"

Matt went to a nearby bench and sat down, the fortune teller's words running through his mind. "I've narrowed it down to two options, but..."

Kratos stood in front of him and studied his face. "You can join Father Thomas' pilgrimage; what's the other option?"

 _He'll never agree to it... Nothing to lose, I guess._  "I'd... kinda like to keep traveling with you guys."

"Why would you want to do that? Your family is far more likely to be here on this continent."

"Yeah, but there's also a chance they're not, right?" Matt argued. Another thought occurred to him, and his mind was made up. "Besides, you all saved me, and I've just caused more problems for you."

Kratos narrowed his eyes. "You're not helping your case."

Matt held his gaze defiantly. "I owe you guys, big time. I don't know what I could possibly do to make it up to you, but you've gotta let me try." He stood up. "What would you have me do?"

Kratos didn't move for a solid minute, and Matt began to feel uncomfortable after the first half of it.  _Well, say something, you statue!_  He couldn't tell, but his change in attitude had surprised the older man.

At last, Kratos turned to walk away. "Come with me," he said.

Matt followed, not sure where this was going.

Kratos led him down the streets and alleyways through town back the way they had come, ending at the main square where the inn and the vendors were located. Matt was about to point out that they had already looked there when the mercenary indicated the Mirage's front porch and told him, "Wait there."

Matt tried to watch Kratos as he walked through the market, but lost him a few times among the shopping locals milling about. Finally, Kratos emerged from the crowd again and came back, holding a square of fabric and a wooden pole. He offered the pole for Matt to see.

Matt looked it over; it was a bit longer than he was tall and capped with metal plating on each end; the wood had a glossy finish to it.

He looked at Kratos, feeling slightly offended. "A walking stick?"

"This is a quarterstaff," Kratos answered. "It was built with combat in mind, but you may want to use it as a walking stick as well. We have a long way to walk."

Matt's eyes widened. "You mean you're-"

Kratos thrust the quarterstaff into his hands and dropped the fabric to the ground, then drew his sword. "Attack!" he commanded, and took on a ready stance.

Matt looked at the staff in his hands, then back to Kratos. "What are you-"

"Just do it!"

 _...Well, here goes nothing._  Matt swung the quarterstaff like a baseball bat at the mercenary's left leg. Faster than his eye could follow, Kratos spun and dodged the blow, then swatted his bare lower leg with the flat of his blade.

Matt clenched his teeth and grunted as a jolt of pain went up his side. He glared at Kratos in sudden anger and struck at him again and again. Each strike was dodged or blocked, but Kratos did not attack him frequently.

Then, after about a minute of sparring, Kratos suddenly touched his sword to Matt's throat, and his rage died instantly.  _Whoa. How did that happen?_  He let the staff fall out of his hands; he could feel about a half dozen welts on his body that hadn't been there before.

After a few more seconds, Kratos sheathed his sword and picked up the staff and the fabric bundle. "Your coordination and reflexes are good, but you have absolutely no technical skill or knowledge in using polearms - or fighting in general." He offered Matt the quarterstaff again. "Your joining us will be contingent on you learning to fight, so that you can at least hold your own in battle and help protect the Chosen. You will keep out of battles unless I say otherwise. Understood?"

_I need to learn to fight? ...Well, it sounds like he thinks I can. Why else would he ask me to? Should I do it?_

_Yes. You should. I should._

Matt slowly grasped the quarterstaff in his right hand and planted one end on the ground. "Understood."

Kratos nodded and handed the bundle to him as well. "Ingenuity is admirable, but no more wearing blankets. Let's go; the others are waiting for us inside."


	5. Out of the Frying Pan

_Chapter 5: Out of the Frying Pan_

Inside the room she had shared with Colette, Raine looked through the supplies in the group's bags one last time. Lloyd and Genis had returned from their shopping and joined the two of them, and the professor had portioned everything out for everyone to carry.  _Food, medicine, cookware, blankets... What are we forgetting?_

"Why are we leaving in the middle of the day?" Genis asked as he sat on one of the beds. "If we wait for tomorrow, we'll have all day to get as far as we can before it gets dark."

His sister closed one of the packs and brought it to him. "Word is starting to spread that the Chosen is in the area," she answered. "We've attracted more attention than is wise as it is, especially with Desians nearby. The last thing we need is a big sendoff; no one will expect us to leave in the middle of the day."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lloyd grabbed his own bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Let's get out of here before any more trouble comes up."

Raine sighed. "Lloyd, we aren't leaving without Kratos. Besides, it will be better if we go one at a time and meet up outside town. We can get started as soon as Matthew leaves."

Colette suddenly cocked her head to one side, and her gaze went blank. Seeing this, Lloyd put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you OK, Colette?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said without making eye contact. "I think I hear Kratos coming now."

"I don't hear anything." Genis got up, opened the door, and stepped into the hallway while the others watched him. After a moment, he came back inside, looking puzzled. "He's coming, and Matt's still with him."

Raine was equally confused. "Why? Did he forget something?"

"We told him he should come say goodbye when we saw him and Kratos in the market earlier," Lloyd said. "We figured you two would want to talk to him one more time or something."

"Yeah, but..." Genis faltered, and then shrugged. "Well, you'll see."

A few seconds later, Kratos appeared in the open doorway with Matt in tow. He had left the blanket he had borrowed before beginning his search that morning, but now he was tugging at the clasp of a plain gray cloak, draped over his striped shirt and now off-white shorts. In his other hand he held a tall, plain wooden rod.

Lloyd nodded at him. "Well, it looks like you're ready to go."

"So you didn't find your family?" Colette asked sadly.

Matt frowned. "No. No one in town recognized me."

"The fortune teller was only able to bring back a single memory of a pet he had," Kratos added.

Colette's eyes lit up. "Oh! Was it a dog?"

"No," Matt answered. "It was a bird."  _What am I saying?!_  "Point being they're not here."

Raine pursed her lips. "So you're back to square one. Have you decided to join Father Thomas, then?"

"I'm not back to square one."

The professor sighed and took a seat on the bed next to the bags.  _We don't have time for this._  "Give us the short version."

Matt hesitated.  _How much do I tell them? They don't need to know EXACTLY what the fortune teller said; they won't buy my gut feeling or intuition or whatever it is... Got it._ "I found a lead that points in the direction of Palmacosta."  _Don't give me that look!... Please?_  "I have a lead... And I have a debt. I'd have died of dehydration without you. So..." He twisted his staff in his hand. "I'd like to come with you guys, if you'll let me."

"You don't have to pay us back for saving you!" Genis exclaimed before anyone else could speak.

"That was just the right thing to do," Colette interjected cheerfully.

"Dwarven Vow Number 2," Lloyd added. "Never abandon someone in need!"

"I don't... Dwarven- what?" Matt shook his head; now was not the time to chase rabbits. "Nevermind. You saved me, so the least I can do is try to help you."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Raine asked dubiously. "You had a hard time keeping up yesterday, and that walk was a drop in the bucket compared to what lies ahead."

To everyone's surprise, it was Kratos who answered, as stoic as ever. "He will become strong enough to share our burdens as we go. Once he learns to wield that quarterstaff, he will help defend the Chosen's life for as long as he travels with us."

Matt looked sheepishly back at Raine, who was studying him again, apparently not quite convinced. "What he said."

Raine looked once more at Kratos. "Why do I get the feeling that was your idea?" she asked dryly. Then she relented. "Alright. We can discuss this in detail once we're on our way. Here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

Matt stepped out of the room and into the hall, staff in hand. He had shed his cloak for the time being and had been given one of the supply packs by Professor Raine; she had taken some things from the other five packs and put them into a drawstring bag for him to carry. It hung from one shoulder like a messenger's bag, and Matt noted as soon as he started walking with it that chafing was going to be a problem.  _I'll need a little something between the rope and my shoulder - something more than my shirt, anyway_ , he thought to himself.

He took the stairs at the end of the hall to the Mirage Inn's ground level and examined each of the bedroom doors as he passed. When he found the one he was looking for, he stopped and knocked on the frame. The door opened and he beheld a middle-aged man with dirty blonde hair and a clean-shaven face.  _Huh. He doesn't look as old without that priest hat thing._

Thomas smiled and greeted him. "Did you have any luck out in town this morning? Or have you not yet begun the search?"

"My family isn't here," Matt answered bluntly, wanting to move away from the subject.

The priest's expression became more somber, and he held the door open wider and stood aside. "I am truly sorry to hear that. While I look forward to having you accompany us, naturally it would be better for you if-"

"I got a lead, though," Matt interrupted, staying where he was.

Thomas paused at this. "A lead? How do you mean?"

"I found out I'm more likely to find them if I go to-"  _wait. I don't think Raine wants us to say where we're going._  "- with the Chosen's group."

Thomas became pensive. "Hmm... That would certainly be an enriching experience, regardless, but also a dangerous one."

Matt shrugged. "So I keep hearing. Anyway. Thank you for inviting me along, but I've decided to go with them."

The priest nodded, and gave a small smile. "Well, Matthew, I dare say we can still afford to help someone who may have need." He retreated out of sight of the doorway for a moment, and returned with a partially-filled bag, which he put in Matt's free hand. "I see the Chosen's group already has provisions, so I will not weigh you down with an excess of supplies. Good luck to you and your companions on this journey. May the goddess watch over you."

_How can she do that if she's asleep?_  "Thank you, Thomas," he said, and he meant it. Even if he found the religious aspect of this whole regeneration-thing dubious, the clergyman had shown him kindness and friendship; when he knew exactly six people in the world, he was not about to take that for granted.

With that, Thomas closed the door and Matt continued on his way. When he reached the common room, he noticed a familiar face at one of the tables - rather, lying  _on_  one of the tables. Matt chuckled to himself.  _Yep. He's feeling it now._  He approached and sat down opposite the other person. "How are you feeling?" he asked mirthfully.

The merchant groaned and didn't look up.

"That figures," said Matt. "You should have some coffee."

"That's the least of my problems," the hungover man grunted. He looked up at Matt with a pained expression. "I'm supposed to go to Iselia to sell my wares, but apparently they're not in the position to be buying potions at the moment. I'll have to go home empty-handed."

Matt's amusement faded.  _He has problems, too - and not just the bottle_ , he realized. An idea occurred to him. "There's a pilgrimage leaving tomorrow morning to visit the people living in the countryside. They can take another person with them; if you go, you could sell your potions to the people you meet - maybe even the ones you travel with."

The other man perked up a little, curious.

"Just go talk to the priest down the hall," Matt continued. He pointed with his staff in the general direction of the room. "His name's Thomas."

The merchant's face darkened. "He won't want me along. Not after last night."

"So go apologize." Seeing Lloyd appear from the hallway, Matt stood up and pushed his chair back in. "He's a nice guy. He'll let you go with them. But first get some coffee." With that, he continued on his way out of the Mirage to the place Raine had instructed him to meet up with the others.

* * *

The sun had peaked and begun its westward descent by the time Matt reached the meeting place outside Triet's southern wall, out of sight of the gate. A few stray clouds from the previous night's storm brought passing relief from the sun's rays while he waited.

Having a clear direction put his thoughts at relative ease, and the waves that rocked his mind were still. He did not have to worry about whether he would find his family in Palmacosta, or wherever else they went; he just had to focus on getting there to search. For the time being, having such a tangible goal brought him a peace of mind for the first time since finding himself out alone in the desert. Matt found himself whistling to himself as he sat with his back to the wall.

Suddenly he stopped, and he wrinkled his forehead in confusion.  _What even is that song?_  He hadn't made it up, that he was sure of, but he couldn't remember hearing it anywhere else prior.

Before he could wonder about it any more, he saw something moving at the edge of his field of vision. He turned his head to look; Lloyd was coming. Matt started pushing himself off the ground, but fell down again in surprise. A large, white, four-legged creature was following close behind the young swordsman.

Matt scrambled to his feet as Lloyd approached. "What did you say to that guy at the inn?" Lloyd asked.

"Lloyd, what is  _that_?"

Its build looked similar to a wolf's, with a fur covering, a pointed snout, and a long, bushy tail. The similarities stopped there. Each of its ears was a couple of times bigger than the rest of its head, its white fur was accented with green in some places, and it was the size of a small horse.

Lloyd scratched his companion's head behind the ears. "Oh, right!" he exclaimed, suddenly remembering. "You haven't met Noishe yet. He ran back here the day before you joined us. We ran into something called a Sand Worm, and it scared him off."

Matt stood up again to take a closer look at Lloyd's pet. The creature, in turn, stared at him apprehensively. "OK, then what  _is_  Noishe?" Matt asked again.

Lloyd grinned. "He's my dog!"

Matt gave him a flat stare; apparently this did not impress him like Lloyd had hoped. "Scorpions are apparently monsters now. I can live with that; I probably never liked them anyway. But I  _saw_  a perfectly normal dog in town this morning. Don't try to tell me this is a dog."

_This again?!_ "He has four paws and a tail, and he isn't a cat, bear, or wolf," Lloyd said sourly. "So he's a dog!"

"Yeah, that's not how it works."

"How would you even know? You don't have any memories!"

"That's... true. But I'm sure I knew at some point. Can't say the same for you."

Neither spoke.

Noishe growled.

"Is something the matter?" a third voice called out

The staring contest ended as the two of them looked back they way they had come. Kratos was approaching, alongside a shorter, hooded and cloaked figure. Noishe's tail started wagging when he saw them.

_Oh, great,_  Lloyd thought.

"Everything's fine," Matt told Kratos once he caught up with them.

"Did anyone recognize you?" Lloyd asked the hooded figure.

The hood was pulled back to reveal Colette's blonde hair and perpetual smile. "Nope!" she said, and unfastened the clasp keeping the cloak over her normal clothes. "Professor Raine's idea worked. And this cloak is actually kind of comfortable!" She handed the garment to Matt before he could decide whether or not to offer to let her keep it.

"Yeah, it's good," he agreed. "Doesn't really look like it, but it's good." He propped his staff up against the wall while he put the cloak back on. "Raine and Genis left before you two did, right?"

Kratos nodded. "Raine wanted to speak with Father Thomas before we left Triet. We went last so he wouldn't notice us, but they hadn't been let in yet when we passed them. He must have been busy with something else." The mercenary folded his arms. "Now, what were you two arguing about?"

_Oh, GREAT._  Lloyd kicked at a small pile of sand by his foot. "Noishe," he said curtly.

"What about Noishe?"

Matt finished with his cloak and picked his staff back up. "Lloyd says he's a dog, I say he's not, it got a little heated. No offense to you, boy," he added, and he offered an open palm to the creature. Noishe sniffed at it, and even gave it a tentative lick.

Lloyd smiled smugly. "See? Just like a dog!"

_Here we go again._  Matt rolled his eyes. "Lots of animals do that, Lloyd."

"I'm telling you, he's a dog!"

"I SAW a regular dog a few hours ago!"

Before Kratos could put a stop to this, Colette chimed in. "You saw Cammy?"

The two tempers diffused instantly as Matt and Lloyd both turned to Colette, equally confused.

"What?"

"Who's Cammy?"

The Chosen's smile broadened. "Cammy's the dog who lives in Triet! She's the only one I saw, anyway."

_...Well,_  Matt thought,  _why the heck not?_  "The little brown and white one? Her name is Cammy?"

"Yep! That's the name I gave her!"

Matt chuckled at this. "As good a name as any, I guess."

Lloyd laughed aloud. "You dork! I knew you like dogs, but I didn't know you like them THAT much!"

"What's not to like?" Colette asked. "They're so cute and soft and friendly!"

All of a sudden, Matt's attention was drawn inward, and he saw in his mind a little fluffy white dog with brown spots and pointed ears, running around in circles and jumping at something invisible to him out of sheer joy.

_What...?_

"Matthew?"

Kratos' voice brought Matt back to the real world. He, Lloyd and Colette were staring at him inquisitively, and Matt realized that Raine and Genis had rejoined them.

Matt glanced at each of them in turn. "Uh... How long was I spaced out?"

"About ten minutes," the mercenary answered. If he was concerned or upset, he didn't show it.

Matt's face suddenly felt hot. "Oh. Uh, sorry about that..." He rocked back and forth on his feet, and decided to change the subject. "I guess we can get going now that we're all here, right?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here!" Lloyd concurred. "Which way is the Ossa Trail, Professor Sage?"

Raine took here gaze off of Matt to answer. "East of here," she said, "maybe three days' travel. We should reach Izoold the day after we pass through the trail."

This took the group's newest companion by surprise. "Four days to the next town?!" He felt the pack hidden under his cloak - it suddenly felt too light. "Do we have enough food and water to make it?"

"Not now," said Kratos. "But we will."

"The desert doesn't reach all the way to the mountains," Genis piped up. "We can get more food and water once we're out of it."

"Well, then let's go already!" Lloyd urged. "I'm sick of this desert!" With that he started walking, with Noishe close behind.

"Now  _there's_  something we agree on," Matt muttered, and started off after him.  _I'm NOT coming back here until there are sand-proof shoes._

* * *

The rest of that day and the two following days were miserable for Matt. For one thing, he had still been tired from the walk to Triet when they started out. The elements only compounded his fatigue. At first, the heat did not bother him, but by noon of the second day, when the sky had completely cleared up from the sandstorm, the sun was a merciless attacker that turned his new cloak into an oven. More than once, he considered taking it off and braving the sun's rays directly, never mind the burns he would get doing so. The sand, while not causing any real damage, continued to torment him, finding its way into every piece of clothing he had, mixing with his sweat to form a sticky, gritty residue, and slipping under his feet with every step he took.

Finally, each time they stopped for the night and he wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest, Kratos put him through hours' worth of combat training. The mercenary's teaching method consisted of the two sparring, Matt being struck multiple times with the stick Kratos used as a sword, and Kratos finally teaching him a technique or strategy that would help him defend himself and gain an advantage over an opponent. This process repeated itself several times back to back, in that order - even with the basic starting positions - until Matt was too tired and sore to continue, and Kratos gave him leave to have some dinner and sleep off his new welts and bruises.

During his training, and during the battles against monsters he and Colette were instructed to stay out of, Matt noticed again that all of the others, especially Lloyd and Kratos, moved extremely quickly and hit extremely hard when fighting. How they were able to maintain that level of exertion and still have the energy to travel for the rest of the day, he didn't have the foggiest idea, but the fact that they made it all look so easy made him resent them a bit. And those "special moves" they kept using... Raine and Genis got a pass because they were elves.  _Regular people shouldn't be able to do things like that,_  he thought as he watched yet another Demon Fang hit home.

All told, Matt was grumpy and short with the others for the remainder of their time in the Triet Desert, and they did little talking with him. However, on the morning of their second full day out of Triet, he noticed the mountain range they were to cross looming up before them. Matt laughed in spite of himself; remembering the plateau he had seen the night he woke up an amnesiac, and seeing mountains on this end of the desert, the whole thing was like a giant frying pan that baked everything inside it to a crisp. Genis did not find it nearly as amusing as he did, so he did not bother telling anyone else.

Throughout that day's walking, the landscape changed, and Matt's spirits were lifted. At first, dry-looking scrub plants appeared here and there, sprouting out of the dunes. Then, the dunes themselves were left behind as swaths of brown-green grass appeared. By sundown, they had left the desert behind completely and found themselves on a fertile plain under the mountains' shadow. By unspoken consent, they did not stop immediately when night fell, but continued on for a couple of hours more, walking by the light of the now nearly-full moon.

When the party finally did stop, they had nearly reached the mountains' feet. Two peaks stood in front of them; according to Raine, the Ossa Trail climbed up between them, reaching maybe half their height at its peak. According to Kratos, the spot they had stopped at was out of sight of the trailhead.

"I don't think we'll run into any real trouble, but there's no use tempting fate," he said. "We'll start tomorrow an hour after sunrise."

"Fair enough," Matt conceded, and he let his pack drop from his shoulder. "What's for dinner?"

"Cabbage rolls!" said Genis. "I think the ingredients are in your bag, Matt."

"Oh, OK." He reached for the pack, but the only thing his hand found was stalks of grass and dry soil. "Oh, crud."

"What is it?" Raine demanded.

"I just had it, I put it down, and now I can't find it!" Matt answered, now hunched over groping in the darkness for the bag. "I can't see a thing down here!"

Colette approached him. "Here, let me help!" she said, and she turned her back to him.

Suddenly the area around Matt was bathed in a bright pink light. He whirled around to see where it was coming from - Colette's back.

"WHOA! What the heck?!"

Colette fluttered her wings and peered over her shoulder. "Can you see the bag now?"

"Uh..." Matt forced himself to look away from her and saw his bag; it had fallen further to his right than he had thought. "Found it."

Colette kept her wings out until they had a fire going; afterward, she put them away, then went to talk with Lloyd. Raine was standing over Genis and talking to him while he cooked. Having no one else to talk to, Matt went near where Kratos was looking out into the night beside Noishe; in the darkness beyond, insects chirped and nocturnal birds gave distant, eerie calls.

"No training tonight?" Matt asked hopefully.

"No," Kratos responded. "We had a longer day than usual. If you're wise, however, you'll practice the strikes and blocks I taught you yesterday."

Matt thought about it for a moment, then shrugged, set his cloak aside, and took on one of the ready stances with his quarterstaff.  _Right foot forward, left hand overgrip on the back end... Right hand undergrip towards the middle... And... Go._  He slashed and stabbed at the air in front of him for a few minutes, movements slow and awkward, but precise.  _I'd still be better off just using it like a club in a real fight_ , he thought to himself.

His hair stood on end; he felt someone watching him. He pivoted a little as he practiced, and saw Raine looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

_You've got to be kidding me._  Matt promptly stopped and sat down with a huff. "Professor Raine keeps staring at me, and I don't like it." He wasn't sure why he was telling Kratos of all people; he just wanted to tell someone.

However, Kratos surprised him by answering. "Your origins are a mystery. She's a scholar; mysteries fascinate her."

"So she's trying to solve me? I'm flattered," Matt said dryly. "She should still stop."

Silence followed. Then: "You need to strike with more confidence. Even if you swing a little wide, aggressive movements will make your enemies wary."

"Huh... I think I'd rather have them cocky, actually."

Matt saw genuine surprise in the mercenary's eyes when he turned to face him. Then the corner of his mouth moved.

_Is that a... Smile?_

"Both mindsets can be manipulated and exploited," Kratos commented. "You'll need to decide which is preferable in a given situation."

Matt then asked the question that had been gnawing at him, but had gone unasked because he had been either too tired or too grouchy to ask it before. "How are you and Lloyd so powerful?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're faster and stronger than..." Matt couldn't remember anything to compare it to. "It doesn't seem natural. You go all out on those monsters in every fight and still have the energy to keep going all day. And you attack with  _flipping shockwaves_."

Kratos nodded and showed Matt the back of his hand. A lavender-colored stone was set into a metal housing on it. Matt had seen it before, but with his companions' overall strange attire, he had not thought to ask about it.

"This is an Exsphere," Kratos said. "To put it simply, it gives you access to strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, and durability your body normally keeps in reserve. It augments your abilities so you can achieve your maximum potential. It's also what allows us to perform Techs like Demon Fang."

Matt took a moment to process all this. "So... Lloyd has one too, I guess?"

The older man nodded. "Genis and Professor Sage do, as well."

"Is there one I could use? I'd actually be a help with it, I think."

Kratos lowered his hand. "We don't have any more Exspheres, and we don't have any more Key Crests. They're required in order to use Exspheres safely."

Matt nodded and looked away.

"Furthermore," Kratos continued, "you still lack the skill to use such strength effectively. I would not give you an Exsphere until you had proven yourself proficient in combat without one."

_Well. Thanks for that._  Matt stood up and walked away, then took on a ready stance. Kratos resumed his watch, Lloyd and Colette joined the Sages by the fire, and Genis put the last touches on their meal as Raine looked on.

* * *

"Could that be them?"

"Probably. No one else has come this way since we got here."

"So should we go down there and get the job done tonight?"

"... No. There's a chance it's not them. If we leave, they might slip by while we're gone and this will take even longer."

"Yeah... That makes sense. But if it  _is_  them, we could finish here sooner."

"You wanna go home, don't you?"

"Yeah. This place is strange; I don't think I like it."

"It'll be OK, Corrine. We'll be back before you know it!"

"That would be wonderful!"


	6. The Ninja, the Witch, and the Poltergeist

_ Chapter 6: The Ninja, the Witch, and the Poltergeist _

A gentle shake on the shoulder from Kratos woke Colette the following morning. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw his face outlined by a pink and orange sky. He left as soon as the Chosen sat up, going to wake up Lloyd next.

She gazed at her sleeping childhood friend, remembering the talk they had had the night before.

 _Matt kind of freaked out when he saw my wings, huh?_  she had asked.

 _Lots of things have freaked him out,_  Lloyd answered, and he grinned.  _It's actually kinda funny sometimes!_

This had not been all that helpful. Colette had looked at the ground; her smile was gone.

_It's... weird, isn't it, having wings?..._

At this, Lloyd had become more serious, almost protective.  _No it's not! Even if you become an angel, you're still you, okay?_

She could still remember the feeling of her eyes welling up as she had met his gaze again, and her smile returned. ... _Thank you, Lloyd._

It was moments like that one when Colette was reminded just how much Lloyd meant to her. Optimistic, confident, kind - he helped her feel like a normal person instead of the world's savior everyone else treated her as. While she watched him as Kratos tried to wake him up, she fingered the red Cruxis Crystal set between her collarbones.

 _What am I gonna do when it's time to complete this journey?_  she wondered.  _What will Lloyd do?_

A loud moan on the other side of the camp interrupted her melancholy thoughts, and she saw Professor Raine attempting to rouse Matt. It was loud to her, at least.

"The sun's up!" Raine insisted, exasperated. "We're leaving soon."

"Ungh... Go away," Matt groaned without opening his eyes. "The sun's not out yet."

"It's behind the mountains," said Raine. "We won't see it until almost noon. If you don't get up, you'll be left behind." With that she grabbed him under the arms and roughly sat him up.

Someone let out a loud "Ow!"

Colette jumped and looked back to Lloyd. He was sitting up, gingerly rubbing the side of his face and glaring at Kratos as he stood up and walked away.

The young Chosen smiled and giggled; her gloom was forgotten for a while longer.

* * *

After a light breakfast, they set out once again, and they reached the foothills within an hour. Before they started the journey uphill, they all found a stream flowing out of the mountains, and they stopped briefly to refill their water skins. As Matt was capping his, he glanced at his reflection in the gently-flowing water. He did a double-take.

His hair wasn't noticeably longer than it had been the night he met his companions, but it was sticking up in places where he had slept on it. One side of the cowlick at the top of his forehead was relatively tame, the other was practically standing at attention. He could see the beginning of a full beard on his face and neck; the hair that covered the front of his chin had grown even longer. Where there wasn't any hair growing, he could see that his face was filthy. The clothes under his cloak were stained, and his green eyes looked tired.

Matt rubbed his cheek; his beard itched wherever he touched the wiry hairs.  _I look disgusting._

_I FEEL disgusting._

He scooped some water with his hands and cleaned his face the best he could, left the stream and rejoined the others. Looking at Kratos and Lloyd's bare faces, he asked, "When do you guys have time to shave?"

"Shave?" Lloyd scratched his head as he thought about it. "I don't need to shave. I haven't so far, anyway."

"Seriously? You're seventeen! You've never shaved before?!"  _That's so unfair..._

"I do my shaving before dawn every morning," Kratos remarked. "You may be able to get a razor to use in Izoold, certainly in Palmacosta."

Genis suddenly blurted out, "What? You're not gonna ask me if I shave?"

Matt looked down at the elf-boy.  _Well, OK then._  "Um... Wasn't planning to. Do you?"

This just made Genis mad. "Forget it, let's go already!" he spat, and started walking toward the trailhead.

Matt gave Lloyd a questioning look; Lloyd's only response was to shrug helplessly and follow.

* * *

The foothills sloped gently upwards until the party arrived at the trail. From there, the mountains were steeper and rockier, yet still covered in vegetation. The path itself wound its way upward in crude switchbacks. Lloyd couldn't see all of it, but it was clear that it did so for a number of kilometers to reach the top of the pass hundreds of meters above them.

"Will we be able to get to the other side today?" he asked.

"I believe so," said Kratos, also studying the path ahead. "It depends on what kind of trouble we run into, if any." He glanced at Matt. "Hold your staff in your left hand while we're traveling today. You're lopsided as it is."

Matt winced. He had already gone through a bout of blisters on his right hand; now he would have to go through it again with his left. He complied nevertheless.

"Alright, let's go!" said Lloyd. However, he had only gone a few steps when an unseen voice called out.

"Stop!"

Everyone froze and rapidly glanced about, trying to find where the voice had come from. Noishe growled at the disturbance.

Matt didn't know it, but he saw her first.

A figure was moving on the rocks above the path. It was a person clad in purple, with dark hair. Then she leapt down to the path to bar their way, and he saw her clearly. She wore a light purple tunic tied around her waist with a large pink ribbon, boots, and elbow-length gloves, with black clothing underneath. Her pale skin was visible most prominently on her face (where it wasn't covered by her untidy hair) and in a window formed by her chin, the open top of her tunic, and what appeared to be an undergarment - all coming together to provide an unobstructed view of her ample cleavage. The look in her eyes, though... Her expression was hard, but her dark eyes were wide, almost appearing uncertain. If not for this expression, Matt would have been thoroughly distracted.

Lloyd was too surprised to notice much detail. "What?" he wondered aloud.

Colette looked the woman up and down once, then moved to the front of the group with Lloyd. "Is she a friend of yours, Lloyd?" she asked softly, not wanting to sound rude to the stranger.

Lloyd shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of," he murmured.

The woman looked over each of them with an air of scrutiny; Matt noticed as she pivoted her head that most of her hair was tied back in a large, messy ponytail. Finally, in a commanding voice, she asked: "Is the Chosen of Mana among you?"

Colette smiled, somewhat surprised. "Oh, that's me."

The woman locked eyes with her. Some slight facial movement betrayed some emotion that none but Kratos and Raine recognized: she was conflicted. Then her gaze hardened again and she drew a paper card from the sash around her waist. She was about to say something when Matt cut in.

"Who's asking?"  _I thought we weren't advertising the fact that she's the Chosen..._

This seemed to catch her off-guard; she stammered for a moment. "Uh-er... That's not your concern!" She looked back to Colette and crouched, like a snake coiling up to strike. "Prepare to die!" she hissed.

Everyone flinched as she rushed at Colette, except Colette herself. She jumped backwards, lost her balance, and teetered for a moment, pinwheeling her arms. There was a squeak, like the sound of a rusted hinge, and she fell down on her backside.

The would-be assassin suddenly stopped as strange noises erupted from the ground beneath her...

"Uh-oh..." the three youngest travelers said in unison...

And then she was gone. There was a crashing sound shortly afterward.

 _What... the... heck..._ Matt continued staring at the large, square hole that had opened up in the ground after everyone else started moving again, trying to wrap his head around the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

Colette pushed herself to her hands and knees and crawled to the edge of the hole, dismayed. "Oh, no!" she cried as she stared into the darkness below. "What should I do? I did it again."

Matt finally found his tongue. "You know, that actually would've been pretty funny if she hadn't been trying to... Wait." He suddenly gaped at Colette. "'Again?' Freakin' ' _again?_ '"

Raine ignored him and stood over the Chosen. "You don't need to worry about it," she reassured the girl. "If she had not fallen in, you might have been killed."

"But..." Colette's protest faltered.

Lloyd stepped up to the hole opposite Colette. "Well... I guess I do feel a bit sorry for her," he said thoughtfully.

"I hope she's okay!" Colette sighed.

Genis crouched beside the hole, looking pensive. "Even assuming her weight to be 45 kilograms-"

 _Aw, crap,_  Matt thought.  _The metric system._

"-and this hole to be ten meters deep, and calculating the gravity constant at 9.8, the impact shouldn't have been fatal."

"Gravity... constant?" Lloyd scratched his head and scowled. Trying to figure these things out just frustrated him. "I don't understand what you just said," he admitted, "but she's alive, right?"

Genis stood up and brushed off his hands. "Probably."

Lloyd nodded, satisfied, and looked down the hole again. "Still, man, she's got some bad luck. Standing right on top of a trapdoor and all."

"It's not a trap," Raine asserted, studying the metal panels that had fallen in to open the hole. "It's a hidden maintenance passage for the mountain path."

Matt rolled his eyes. "If it sits like a duck, quacks like a duck, and makes ninja girls fall down like a duck, it might as well be a trapdoor." He walked around the hole looking at the ground, missing the utterly confused looks the others gave him in response. Beside the spot where Colette had fallen, he found the red knob of a lever hidden among the foliage. He had to set down his staff and use both hands to move it, and the doors over the hole swung upward and closed again.  _She did that on accident?!_

As Genis and Colette picked themselves up off the ground, Kratos started along the path again. "We should get moving," he said, with no more urgency than if the group had stopped simply to watch a butterfly pass.

Lloyd didn't feel comfortable just leaving after that. "Hey! Shouldn't we find out who that woman was?"

Kratos stopped and gave him an aside glance. "She'll come after us again on her own. This area is too confined and the footing is poor. It would be wise not to linger." He started walking again, only to stop short a second time. "Matthew," he stated without turning around.

"Huh?"

"Left hand."

Matt sighed and switched his staff to his left hand.

* * *

Matt stumbled forward, catching himself just before he fell over completely.

Genis, who was ahead of him, paused and looked at him critically. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Matt responded, and he straightened up again to keep going.

Genis waited for him to catch up a little before continuing. "Are you tired or something?"

Matt was indignant. "What makes you say that?"

The elf shrugged. "This trail is actually pretty easy for a mountain path, but that's the third time you've tripped and almost fallen."

"Par for the course, then" Matt said defensively. "I hardly ever actually fall when I trip."  _How would I know that?_  He thought for a moment, then grudgingly admitted, "But yeah. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"Why not?"

Matt tapped the side of his head with his free hand. "My body was tired, but my brain wasn't. Couldn't stop thinking."

Genis nodded. "Were you thinking about your family?"

Matt sighed. His worries about whether his family was anywhere to be found, and whether he would live to find them again, had been active. "Eh... Not exactly. Kinda hard to think about what you don't remember, don't you think?"

No answer came for some time. Genis looked at the ground as he went, and his heart became heavy. At length, he muttered, "No. I don't think so."

"Huh?"

 _Ugh, why did I say that?_  Genis felt like he could kick himself.  _He won't really care. He's an alright human, but he's still a human._  "Never mind. It's nothing."

 _Never mind? Nothing?_  "It sure didn't sound like nothing to me." Matt studied Genis more closely, and his eyes widened as something clicked. "Hold on. Raine's your sister... Where are your parents?"

The elf shot him a venomous glare. "I said never mind!"

 _Wow,_  Matt thought.  _Touchy. Must be something there, then..._

_You can't go through life looking inward only. Look around, or you'll miss what's happening around you, what others are going through._

_Huh. Haven't heard from you in a while._

_You've been busy._

_True._  Fearing for his own sanity, Matt cut this conversation with himself short and looked back at Genis. "You know," he began awkwardly, and waited for the boy to look at him before continuing, "if you have missing family, that means we have something to talk about sometime, if you want. Since you don't shave and stuff yet."

Genis cocked his head. He groaned when he took Matt's meaning. "I'd rather just forget that happened." Then he looked where he was going again and suddenly stopped.

Matt frowned. "Wha-"

He bumped into Lloyd. Everyone had stopped at a wide bend in the path. Confused, Matt peered around them to see what the holdup was.

Four people held the road against them. One wore light armor with a visor over his eyes and carried a sword and shield, one wore a cloth over the lower half of his face and had a curved dagger, one held a bow with a quiver of arrows, and the fourth wore a black robe and pointed hat and carried some sort of staff. The former three had serious, angry faces, but the fourth had an unnerving smile.

Matt looked incredulously at them. "What's going on here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the archer grunted as he nocked an arrow to his bow. "This is a stickup. Give us your money and your valuables and no one gets hurt." He aimed in their general direction.

Kratos scowled as his gaze flicked over each of their enemies. These brigands didn't know what they were getting into. "Lloyd," he said softly and calmly, "you take on the bandit. I'll deal with the soldier. Genis, attack the archer and the witch with magic. Professor Sage, protect the Chosen. Colette, Matthew... Stand back. Give them no quarter."

He suddenly whipped out his sword. The archer shot at him, but his arrow seemed to disappear as Kratos whirled the blade through the air before him. "Now!" he shouted.

From Matt's perspective, absolute chaos erupted. Swords clashed, arrows and chakrams flew past each other, and magic - bone-breaking, skin-searing, breath-stealing, deadly magic - filled the air. It was terrifying. He had seen them battle against monsters - including those...  _creepy_  Mandragora creatures that lived on the trail - and wipe the floor with them, but these were people they were fighting, and he regarded them as more dangerous than the wild beasts he had seen. He wasn't sure yet how far it was going to go. Were they trying to incapacitate each other? Cripple? Maim? Even kill?.

_Am I gonna have to... do that?_

His companions, however, came through handily. From the safety of a force field projected by Raine's magic, Colette managed to break the archer's bow in two. A blast of earth-magic from Genis sent the archer and the mage sprawling face first, and Lloyd and Kratos succeeded in backing up their opponents against the side of the mountain next to the path. Soon the two were disarmed.

Matt, as well as one of the enemy soldiers, noticed a movement on the battlefield.

"Now," Kratos growled as he held his sword to his opponent's throat, "trouble us no more."

"Yeah, get lost!" Lloyd added, to Kratos' annoyance.

The soldier sneered. "We're not done just yet."

There was a heart-stopping cackle.

Everyone turned their heads to see the witch back on her feet, a ring of light surrounding her.

"My turn!" she laughed, and a set of fireballs began materializing before her.

As soon as he saw it, Genis closed his eyes and began charging a spell of his own. A ring of pale blue light surrounded him as he hit the ball of his kendama.

_Thwack_

The witch's fireballs vanished; she stumbled to the ground with a curse. Matt was behind her, quarterstaff raised and eyes wide.

Genis opened his eyes again, and a triumphant spark was in them. "All right!  _Icicle!_ "

Ice formed around his enemy's feet as she stood up. The formation grew and spread until her whole body, save her head, was enveloped. Then the whole thing burst, and down she went.

Kratos looked back to the soldier he had cornered, and he took the sword from his throat. "That's that." He sheathed his blade. "Leave us."

The soldier was slack-jawed, but he quickly came to his senses and retreated down the trail the way the Chosen's party had come. The other three followed; the archer took the unconscious witch from under Matt's poised staff and carried her off slung over his shoulders.

"And don't come back!" Genis jeered at the fleeing robbers.

Kratos looked over the group. Satisfied that no one was hurt, he addressed Lloyd. "You need to make sure when you're attacking one opponent that you don't leave yourself open to another. And you," he continued, shifting his attention from Lloyd's irritated look to Matt's petrified one, "need to follow orders when they're given."

Matt swallowed; his knees were shaking.

"In the future, however, bear in mind that your strategy was a good one. Casting magic requires concentration, as I'm sure you've seen. Break the caster's concentration, and you'll prevent the spell from being cast."

 _Wait... He means that was a good move?_  Matt set one end of his staff on the ground. "I... wasn't thinking strategy," he admitted. "I just saw her getting ready to do something and... Thought I should do something."

The mercenary nodded. "Then next time, show some more self-control. Acting on impulse worked this time; it doesn't do so often. Let's go, everyone."

Everyone but Kratos crowded around Genis as they started walking again. "Genis, you used ice magic!" Lloyd cheered.

"Yeah, that was amazing, Genis!" said Colette.

"You've been studying that one for a while now, haven't you?" Raine asked, beaming at her brother.

Genis was grinning ear to ear, and there was a hint of a blush on his cheeks. "I spent the last few evenings working on it, and I finally got it!"

"Is that so?" His sister suddenly became suspicious. "It hasn't kept you from your other studies, has i-"

"Hey, Matt," Genis said quickly, "thanks for stopping that witch's spell! It let me concentrate long enough to finish mine!"

Matt suddenly smiled. It was too good to pass up. "No problem, Genis. And good job on the ice spell. It was really... cool."

The others, minus Colette, groaned a little.

"Come on," he needled. "It's just a joke! Chill out!"

* * *

They didn't encounter any more human enemies for the rest of their hike. Their only other assailants were freakish killer rabbits, monstrous bears, and humanoid plants. Aside from these attacks, they stopped once for lunch (Matt found he was fond of well-seasoned bear steak) shortly after reaching the top of the trail, as well as a few times when someone needed to relieve himself or herself and briefly went out of sight of the trail.

Matt stayed at the back of the line, for the most part. Knowing now that his companions had a substantial advantage over him in their Exspheres, he didn't feel as bad about being a bit slower and a bit more quickly winded than them. He still pushed himself to keep up, not wishing to have a repeat of the walk to Triet.  _And if I do get an Exsphere,_  he reasoned as they approached the bottom of the hill near sundown,  _I'll be even stronger then if I get stronger now._

"Before I forget again."

Matt jumped at the sudden intrusion. "Jeesh, don't do that!" he breathed as his heart resumed a normal tempo.

Lloyd chuckled and scratched his head. He had slowed down to walk alongside him with Noishe. "Sorry. But you should probably pay more attention. Anyway, there's something I've wanted to talk to you about since we left Triet, but whenever I thought of it and tried to ask, it was... a bad time."

Matt reflected on the time between then and the present; he recalled multiple instances where he had snapped at the others when they had approached him.

 _Wow. Smooth move, Matt._  He looked at the ground, embarrassed. "Uh... sorry about that. What was your question?"

Lloyd casually rested his hand on his sword hilt as he walked. "You said you found a lead back in Triet. What was it?"

 _Crud._  "Right, that." Matt lightly kicked a rock out of his path. "It's not much of a lead," he said glumly. "I went to the fortune teller after I had tried everywhere else in town, right?"

Lloyd frowned. "Yeah, and she couldn't help either."

"She couldn't get my memories back," Matt clarified. "But since I had already paid her, she offered a free fortune. Consolation prize, I guess. She said..." He furrowed his brow here, unable to remember the exact words. "Basically, I'm more likely to find my family if I stick with you guys, at least for the time being."

Lloyd put on his own thinking face. "'More likely'... So... you don't know if they're over there or not?"

Matt very nearly lost his temper at him for making him think of that again, but it dissipated with a deep breath. "No," he exhaled, "I don't. If I knew, it wouldn't be a lead. But I gotta start somewhere, right?" He retrieved his water skin and took a drink.

Noishe whined and Lloyd scratched him behind the ear. "But... you're also more likely to get hurt or killed if you're with us," Lloyd said, growing concerned.

Matt lowered the water skin to look at him skeptically. "I don't see how. We've seen monsters pretty much everywhere we've gone. The way I see it, I'm safer if I stick with people who can handle them, and teach me how." He started to take another drink, then paused. "I'd be dead now anyway if I hadn't run into you." He grinned. "Plus, hanging out with you guys is gonna get me in phenomenal shape at this rate."

He had to lean his head back to get any water now, and doing so, he noticed the group had arrived at the bottom of the hill. The path had come around the side of a steep bank; part of this bank was boarded up with large wooden planks.

Just as it occurred to Matt that the boards were far too steep to be a ramp, Raine realized that this must be the entrance to the maintenance tunnel from before.  _It's a shame_ , she thought.  _We can't risk exploring with that assassin about... Wait._

There was just enough time for a pit to form in her stomach before the shoddy wall suddenly burst asunder, scattering wooden debris over a large radius and revealing a gaping hole in the mountain's foot. The assassin herself stood blinking in the light.

"W-wait!" she called out.

Noishe hid behind the group and stared at the assassin, growling. After what she had been through that morning, Lloyd was genuinely impressed that she had found them again. "Wow, she caught up with us."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Colette exclaimed, catching a mix of bewilderment and bemusement from everyone else present.

The ninja shook her head and resumed the speech she had prepared in her anger and humiliation in the darkness of the tunnels. "D...don't move!"

"A wise decision," Raine said darkly.

Kratos drew his sword, and the others readied their own weapons. Their pursuer slowly drew a card from her sash. "I won't be caught off-guard this time," she said in a deadly tone. To Matt's amazement, she set the card hovering in thin air before her. It started spinning, picking up speed until it formed a small whirlwind, and then zipped around behind the assassin and disappeared in a flash that caused everyone to shut their eyes or look away. When they looked back, a large, beaked monster was levitating behind the ninja.

She produced another card for each hand. "Prepare to die!"

And the battle began.

As soon as the assassin had reappeared, Kratos had begun equipping his shield. Now, when she tried to rush him, he used it to block her rapid-fire attacks and shove her away. She jumped as he did, and she flew backward, flipping once, and landed in a crouch. Meanwhile, Lloyd ran at the card-monster and slashed at it with his swords, forcing it to put up its guard. The assassin saw this happening, and her hand blurred as she threw a card at Lloyd before engaging Kratos again. It exploded on impact knocking him away. The creature moved to attack him while he was down, until the lightning spell that Genis had been preparing hit home. Raine's staff flashed, and Lloyd stood up again, looking no worse than before.

Matt watched all this from the path, quarterstaff in one hand, water skin in the other, Noishe beside him, and thoughts racing through his mind. One one hand, the fight was spectacular to behold. The strength and speed on display, the coordination between his companions, and even between the ninja and her card-monster - he would have been thrilled if it wasn't a life-or-death situation. At one point, the monster managed to send Lloyd sprawling and attacked Colette before Genis could finish a spell. The Chosen promptly revealed her wings and took to the sky; long claws raked the space she had just been standing in. The ninja took note of this, managed to knock Kratos away, and jumped after her, cards in hand. Colette was ready for her. She blocked the attack with her chakrams, the impact pushing her further into the air. Once she steadied herself, she conjured three glowing rings from her wings and sent them at her attacker.

"Angel Feathers!"

The rings struck the assassin as she fell, and she landed on her back and didn't move. Kratos turned his attention to the monster. It had forced Lloyd back to where Raine and Genis were standing, and he was forced to frantically block attacks directed at the mages while they cast spells as quickly as they could. The mercenary promptly moved to flank it. As soon as he was gone, however, the ninja suddenly stood up and began creeping up on him, cards ready.

In that moment, Matt went from anxious but confident to nearly panicking.  _She's going to kill him! If he goes down, they'll pick the others off one by one!_

An idea came to him. A crazy, stupid idea.

He looked at the quarterstaff he was holding, then to the sneaking assassin, and back and forth twice more. He dropped his waterskin and took on his preferred ready stance - with his left hand and foot forward, and right hand in the back to control the staff's movement. Satisfied that he was doing it correctly, he rapidly picked out which strikes he would use, and charged as quickly and quietly as he could.

She saw him well before he was within striking distance.

Matt lunged and performed a downward stabbing motion.

The ninja sidestepped and the staff's metal cap thunked against the hard ground.

_Aw, crap._

He caught a spinning kick to the face and was sent reeling.

Keeping her momentum, the assassin spun once more. "Time to die!" she growled, and she launched a card.

"Pyre Seal!"

Time seemed to slow down. The card didn't spin like would have expected - not flat like Colette's chakrams, and not longways like an arrow. It just flew straight at him, face first... unless it was the back he was looking at? Ah, it didn't matter. He watched it, horrified, as it slapped into his chest...

There was an explosion...

And the battlefield suddenly shrunk before his eyes as he was thrown backward and slammed into the bank beside the cave opening. He blacked out before he hit the ground.

* * *

"No!" The instant Kratos had the monster's attention, Lloyd left him to it and charged at the ninja.

This time, she noticed his approach only just in time to dodge a swipe from his sword. She dropped to the ground and tried to sweep his legs out from under him, but Lloyd jumped up, swords raised in an attempt to run her through.

She had been apprehensive before, but not out of fear. Now, her eyes widened as she was forced to roll out of the way. Lloyd missed her by centimeters. She prepared a counterattack, but had to abort it when Kratos suddenly joined the young swordsman. Her Wind Guardian was nowhere to be seen.

She swore under her breath, doing her best to dodge the flurry of sword strokes. She found herself getting nicked by their blades, and she was starting to tire.  _This is bad_ , she realized.

Just as Lloyd thought they had her overpowered, the assassin leaped backwards and flipped away. She landed hard, panting and bleeding before the cave she had come out of. He almost gave chase, but Kratos blocked his path with his shield arm.

The ninja was seething at them, holding a hand over one of her larger wounds. "Ugh..." she grunted. "Just you wait! I swear I will kill you all next time!"

A thick cloud of smoke enveloped her; when it cleared, she was gone.

Lloyd shoved Kratos' arm away and ran toward the spot she had been standing. "Wait!"

"Lloyd, she's gone," Raine sighed.

He stood there fuming for a moment before running to Matt's side. He lay facedown, staff at his side, with only his arms and head visible under his cloak. Blood was oozing from a wound beneath his hair on the back of his head.

"He's still breathing!" Lloyd called out. "But he's hurt."

The group approached Matt's unconscious body. "Don't try to move him," Raine instructed. "We need to find out if he's broken any bones first."

Genis eyeballed the distance between the bank and the spot Matt had been launched from. "I'm surprised he even survived that without an Exsphere," he remarked, putting his kendama in the back of his shorts.

Colette leaned over him, worry etching lines on her young face. "Professor, you have to help him!"

"I-"

" _EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!_ "

A blood-curdling scream drifted out of the cave opening.

Kratos bristled, and everyone else who was awake froze and became pale as long-dead corpses.

Genis reached for his kendama again. "What... was that?" he squeaked.

The professor finally found her tongue again. "Someone must have gotten hurt in there..."

"Should we... try to help them?" Lloyd mumbled, though he clearly wasn't eager to. "It sounded like a girl..."

"I think we'd better..." murmured Colette.

Kratos fully regained his composure first and issued instructions again. "Professor, you and the Chosen stay here with Matthew and see what you can do about his injuries. Lloyd, Genis, come with me and we'll find out what's going on. More likely than not, someone fell in through the trap door, or perhaps got attacked by monsters. Let's go."

The two boys reluctantly followed him into the dark; his reasoning made sense, and soon they were relatively calm again. Lloyd's thoughts began to wander.

"Why are people trying to kill us?" he wondered aloud. The tunnels echoed and amplified his voice, so any sound above a whisper was conspicuously loud and created a murmuring noise that lasted several seconds.

Kratos considered letting that one go without answer. "...There are always those that reject salvation," he finally said.

"Maybe she's a Desian?" Genis suggested, his mind taken off their current predicament.

The mercenary shrugged. "Who knows? At any rate, we are in constant danger. That's all we have to know."

The tunnels were dimly lit by lanterns hung from the support beams holding up the roof. By their light, Kratos led them along branching paths to where he was sure the scream had come from, and they were just able to see any and all monsters coming their way. Most of them attacked, but some did not, instead opting to pass them by and continue through the tunnels.

"Lloyd," Genis whispered in a shaky voice on the fifth time this happened, "have you noticed we're going down the only path all the monsters are running  _away_  from?"

"We should get out of here, Kratos," said Lloyd; his eyes were becoming wild with fear.

"Not before we find out what happened here," Kratos answered firmly, never breaking pace. "Get ahold of yourselves. It's unlikely to be worse than being attacked by an assassi-" he cut himself off as he kicked something that made a scraping sound on the ground.

Lloyd jumped, and the mercenary had to clap a hand over Genis' mouth to muffle his yelp. They were in near darkness now; they had passed the last hanging lamp a few minutes ago. Kratos crouched and held out his hand; a small fireball materialized in it. He saw that his boot had struck the blade of an ancient sword.

The fireball grew in size, and the expanding ring of light slowly revealed a humanoid shape beside the sword. It was a blackened skeleton. Only it was too large to be the remains of an ordinary human, it had two additional arms with a sword beside each one, and the skull was nowhere to be seen.

Still, seeing that the whatever-it-was was dead brought a wave of relief over Lloyd and Genis. "I guess the scream came from somewhere else down here, then," Genis said hopefully.

"Then let's go back," Lloyd suggested as he turned around. "I don't like this... place..." The words died in his throat when he found the creature's skull in his path. It, too, looked large but humanoid, except for a pair of large, curled horns on the sides of the head. That, and the fact that Lloyd was certain it hadn't been there when they came in.

"Kratos..." Genis whimpered when he saw it. The mercenary just scowled, and he poked it with his sword.

" _EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!_ "

" _AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!_ " Lloyd and Genis' screams joined in, and every hair on Kratos' body stood on end.

Their cries echoed through the tunnels for what felt like hours after the initial sounds stopped. As the echoes faded, a low, distant voice spoke...

" _I... FIGHT... STRONG ONES..._ "

The world started spinning around Genis; the tunnel seemed to close in on him. "It's talking... The skull is talking..."

" _YOU... FACE... ME..._ "

Everything in Lloyd told him to run, but his body didn't obey; he stood rooted in place, staring at the unmoving head.

" _PREPARE... TO... DIE..._ "

Kratos had had enough. Whatever this thing was, it was obviously some sort of trick to distract the group from their task. He swung his sword at it.

The skull jumped into the air and the blade sparked as it hit the rock floor.

Mouth open in a silent scream, Genis watched the skull fly over their heads and back to the ground to sit at the neck of the fallen abomination. There was a cracking sound, and another, and another, until it became more of a rattling as the bones began moving. One pair of arms fixed its skull to its neck as it rose to its feet. Once standing, it towered over even Kratos. It splayed its arms, and the four swords scattered around it scraped against the ground as they rose up, one to each hand.

Lloyd gulped and drew his own swords. "This is gonna be tough..."

* * *

Matt was falling. He didn't know where he had fallen from, and it didn't matter. He was falling, and the sands of the Triet Desert were below him.

 _No! Not there! Anywhere but there!_  He could actually see scorpions scurrying around... No, they were arranging themselves in a circle. They were waiting for him to hit the ground.

Suddenly the desert below him spun away, and he was falling toward a mountain instead.

Something hit Matt and he started tumbling. The ninja/assassin was falling with him, except she almost appeared to be standing upright as she fell.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted.

"Fire seal!" was her only response. She threw a card at him; it grew arms and legs mid-flight and slammed into him. Latching on with its feet, the thing reached to where its head should have been and produced a metal pin.

It exploded, leaving a mushroom cloud in its place and launching Matt even faster toward the rocks below.

He hit the ground...

And he woke up with a gasp.

He was panting, eyes darting to and fro as he tried to get his bearings. The sky was getting dark, the first stars twinkling into view. Noishe lay nearby, Colette was pacing in front of the tunnel opening, and Raine was seated near a small pile of her things reading a book. Everything hurt, but how had he survived that fall without so much as going unconscious? Where was the ninja?

Then everything came back to him. The ninja's return, the battle that followed, and his spectacular failure to be of assistance. He shut his eyes and sighed.  _Well, that went about as poorly as it could have. Stupid dream._

_You're still alive, aren't you?_

Matt shifted his leg and felt something small and hard under his thigh. He opened his eyes and felt around the area, but couldn't find what it had been.

 _Oh. My pockets. I never even thought to check them._  He reached into the offending pocket and pulled out a device that fit snugly into the palm of his hand, wrapped in a rubbery cord. He looked it over; it had a few buttons, but none of them seemed to do anything. He shrugged to himself, put the thing back, and leaned back against the bank.

"Ow!" A spike of pain racked the back of his skull. He reached for the spot and found a cloth bandage wrapped around his head.

"Professor, he's awake!"

Raine immediately set down her book and went to him. She grabbed his wrist and forced his hand down, away from the bandage. "Don't do that! You have an open wound. Take this," she said sternly, and held out an open palm. In it was an acorn-sized blob, translucent red in color.

Matt obeyed hesitantly, popping it in his mouth and chewing slowly. It tasted like apple. Soon after he swallowed, the pains in his body dulled sharply.

"Whoa," he whispered. "What was that?"

"Medicine. How are you feeling? Dizzy? Nauseous? Disoriented? Fatigued?"

Matt gave a short laugh at the last one. "Pretty sure I was fatigued before that fight started." Raine just looked irritated at this, so he took a little time to figure out a more serious answer. "I don't feel anything weird... My whole body just hurts." He broke eye contact to look around again. "What happened to the assassin and her pet? And where are Lloyd, Genis, and Kratos?"

"We destroyed the monster," Colette volunteered, "and she left soon after that. The others..." She cast a worried glance at the cave.

"There was a disturbance in the tunnels," Raine finished. "They went to investigate."

"... The force."

"What?"

Matt stared into the sky, brow furrowed. "... Disturbance in the force. Agh." He put his head in his hands. "It's gone again."

Raine looked at him with redoubled interest. "Did you remember something?"

"Almost. I think it was just from a story, though."

That caught Colette's attention. "Oh, good!" she said, grinning. "If you remember all of it, you can tell it to us!"

The echoing sound of footsteps cut that conversation short. Raine promptly started gathering a few things of hers that were scattered on the ground, and Colette peered into the tunnel expectantly. Soon enough, the three spelunkers emerged from the gloom into the lesser gloom; each one's face was a few shades paler than normal.

Raine picked up her staff and looked at them sadly. "You didn't find the one who screamed, then?" That would be better than the alternative, she thought.

"We did," Kratos said flatly. He sounded a lot calmer than he looked.

Colette hung her head. "Were you too late?"

"I don't wanna talk about it," Lloyd said hastily. "Not here, not tonight. Let's just get away from here."

Raine raised an eyebrow. "But Matthew is-"

"We're going," Kratos interrupted. "Now." He looked down at Matt, who was trying to piece together exactly what was going on. He had never seen Kratos scared before... Wait, no. He was mad now. "Can you stand?"

He hadn't tried yet. "Uh... I don't know." He moved each limb to make sure they still responded and began to slowly push himself up. Kratos watched for maybe five seconds before grabbing his arm and hoisting him up the rest of the way. The mercenary picked up the quarterstaff and thrust it into his hand, then turned and led the way at a brisk pace. Lloyd and Genis followed closely.

Matt wobbled on his feet for a moment before finding his balance, and he stared off after the three.  _What's the hurry?_  he wondered, and he took off after them as fast as he could will himself to. Something caught his eye as he crossed the former battlefield; a peculiar card was lying in the dirt. After a brief hesitation, he picked it up and pocketed it before continuing on his way.

Colette looked to Raine. "What's gotten into them? They looked really scared."

The professor could only shrug helplessly. "Whatever it was, we'll need to wait until morning to find out." Then they left the area with the others.

* * *

"Uh, Kratos? Are you sure this is a good idea?"

The group had walked on for about half an hour, until the sky darkened over the plain beneath the mountains' shadows. The full moon and sky full of stars provided enough light for them to continue if they had wished to, but everyone was tired from the day's climb and they halted. Before Matt had gotten the chance to sit down, however, Kratos called out to him and instructed him to follow. He sounded composed, but expression was angry, and Matt quickly obeyed.

About a mile away from the camp, Kratos had lit a small fire for them to see by and produced a suitable tree branch for himself to use. Now, he stood across from Matt in a ready stance. "Is something the matter?"

Matt shifted uncomfortably, trying to maintain his own stance, acutely aware now of the bandage wrapped around his forehead. "Well, yeah, I hiked a big mountain and got exploded by a crazy ninja lady!"

Suddenly the mercenary was on him. Three swift hits and three welts later Matt was sent stumbling backward, barely keeping his balance.

"Our enemies won't wait for you to be in peak physical condition. Neither will I."

He immediately closed in again, and this time Matt fell on his back. He had to roll to one side to push himself up.  _That hurt... more than usual._

Kratos' eyes shone with a cold fury. "Besides," he said quietly, "your injuries are your own fault."

_Wait, is that what this is about?!_

He attacked again the instant Matt found his ready stance, and he fell down again. Matt clenched his teeth to keep himself from crying out in pain; the result was a loud growl.

The mercenary's voice started to rise. "You've had that staff for just over three days, and you thought you could take on an assassin?"

 _This isn't training... It's punishment..._ He struggled to his feet only to get beaten down again. He stood up again, shaking.

"You lack the knowledge to wield it effectively."

_WHACK_

"You lack the instinct needed to survive battle."

_WHACK_

"You lack the strength to make use of either."

_WHACK_

"And you lack the wisdom to realize any of this yourself!"

Matt collapsed again after this last strike, quivering, fighting the wetness in his eyes a lot better than he was fighting Kratos. "That was... I know it was a bad idea," he grunted. "I thought I could help-"

Kratos stood over him. "If you had actually thought about it, you would have come up with something sensible."

_Yeah, like warn him, or throw something at her..._

"People who have the will to do good things, but lack good sense, are dangerous to themselves and others." He started walking away to put out the fire. "You nearly got yourself killed this time, and you've given me plenty of reason to leave you in Palmacosta, or even in Izoold."

Matt's eyes widened, and the pain he was in became much less pressing.  _If I get left, I'll be stuck..._

A rustling sound caused Kratos to turn around again, and he saw Matt shakily pushing himself off the ground. He regarded his efforts with a cool indifference; his mind was nearly made up. The boy - he was indeed just a boy to him - didn't even make eye contact.

"It was a... stupid mistake," Matt panted. "I should have listened to you. Urgh... I was trying to play hero. I know better now. I don't wanna be left for it." He took on a somewhat sloppy ready stance, and looked up at the mercenary accusingly. "Don't tell me  _you've_  never... done anything stupid."

A long silence followed. Matt sincerely hoped Kratos wouldn't actually attack him again, but didn't let it show. He knew that Kratos could easily argue that the field was no place to allow for such mistakes, and he feared he might declare him dead weight. What actually would happen, though, he couldn't guess. All emotion had left the merc's face.

Finally, Kratos stamped out the fire and started walking back toward camp. As he passed Matt, he handed him another one of the apple-medicines without breaking stride.

"Get some rest. We'll start training in earnest tomorrow morning at sunrise. If that quells your heroic tendencies, you may continue traveling with us."

 _Sunrise? Ugh... I can do that, I guess. Um..._  "Wait... Wait, what do you mean 'in earnest?!'" Matt called after Kratos as he followed him back to the others.


	7. Something Smells Fishy...

"In earnest" turned out to be about as grueling as Matt had feared it would be. After waking him up at sunrise as promised, Kratos had him completely start his training over, beginning with four different starting positions - two offensive and two defensive, a left-handed and right-handed version for each - and drilled him on them for two hours straight. It wasn't particularly taxing physically, but his trainer had, in his mind, a ridiculously high standard. Each time Matt took a stance, Kratos corrected him on some point or another. "The angle of your staff is off." "Bend your knees a little more." "You're tensing up. Relax." The latter became increasingly frequent as he got more and more frustrated. Kratos might have had his reasons, but two hours of nothing but stances bored him out of his mind. Two hours of being told he was wrong only made it worse. At the very least, they did not spar that morning; the apple gel, as he had learned it was called, had helped, but he was still sore from the previous day's events.

When Kratos finally indicated that they were done for the morning, Matt let his staff fall to the ground and sat down to examine the blisters on his left hand; those that had been on his right had been replaced by callouses. "If you don't mind me asking," he said in as even a tone as he could muster, "why are we going back to stances when I was doing blocks and strikes two nights ago?"

The mercenary answered in kind. "Two nights ago, I was teaching you to fend for yourself. That would be enough to survive against most monsters, or even the odd bandit. However, you brought that assassin's attention on yourself. She might have spared you before, but now she will feel compelled to kill you as well."

Matt shuddered; Lloyd had told him about the ninja's parting words following her defeat.

"Furthermore," Kratos continued, "if you come with us to Palmacosta, our enemies in the region will not be content to leave bystanders alone."

"Enemies?"

"There is a Desian facility just four days away from the city. If you need to think about your movements in battle against such foes, you'll be killed. Combat must become instinct in order for you to survive, starting with the basics."

 _Still feels like punishment_ , Matt thought bitterly, and he returned his attention to his aching hands.  _Or he's trying to get rid of me. One of the two. Maybe both. If he does want me to stay behind somewhere... I'm gonna make him say so._

"Enough delay," Kratos said gruffly. "The others will be awake by now; we'll be going soon."

* * *

About half an hour after training ended, the group started moving again, aiming to reach the fishing village of Izoold before sundown. Before everyone found their own pace and spread out, Raine demanded a full account from Kratos, Lloyd, and Genis of their foray into the maintenance tunnels. Even in broad daylight, Genis had a hard time speaking coherently about it, so the two swordsmen took turns describing the apparently undead being that had lured them into the tunnels and challenged them to a fight. Even with all the fantastical things he had witnessed in the past week, Matt wasn't sure if he believed their story or not.  _Then again, I doubt Lloyd could make something like that up. Kratos, though... Nah. Too stiff for that._

"Fascinating..." The Professor clearly meant it, but she was also visibly disturbed by this tale. "Yes... That may have been the end result of an elite being from the Underworld."

Matt nearly slapped his forehead at that remark.  _Ah, give me a break..._

Genis, however, finally managed to speak up. "The Underworld? That's just a legend, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Raine said, shaking her head. "After all, demons and ghosts are completely different from our type of life-form..."

Matt tuned out completely and fell to the rear while the others speculated on the thing's origins. Instead, his mind wandered back to the mystery ninja, as it had been doing since she nearly killed him. The thought unnerved him, but he had also since realized how ironic it was; the assassin coming after the Chosen nearly got the group's tag-along instead. The fact that she failed to do even that made it a bit more humorous than dark. Still, he found himself becoming nervous and alert when cresting hills or turning blind corners around the foliage. He kept expecting to see that cold, determined gaze from the moment she attacked him re-appear. That look... it had been different from the alert, unsure one she had worn at their first, comically ill-fated meeting.  _She'll be back. She'll be back to finish the job... And now, apparently, that means all of us._

_..._

_... But dangit if she wasn't good-looking._

As it turned out, being constantly on the lookout meant Matt was not too distracted with thinking to notice when one of the others slowed down to talk to him.

"What are you looking for?" Colette asked him.

"Huh?"

"You keep looking around like you're expecting to see something. Are you worried about monsters?"

"Oh. No, I'm not worried about monsters. Maybe I should be, but..." Matt shrugged. "I'm worried about that assassin."

Colette's eyes widened a little, but she immediately smiled and closed her eyes.

_No wonder she trips!_

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about her," she said cheerfully. "She left before she got really hurt, and she looks like the kind of person who can take care of herself!" Colette walked a few more paces before realizing Matt was no longer following. She stopped and opened her eyes, and saw him staring dumbfounded at her. She looked back at him quizzically.  _Did I say something wrong?_

 _She's not joking,_  Matt realized. "Colette, she tried to kill you! She almost killed  _me!_  And Lloyd says she wants to kill  _all of us_  now!"

The Chosen just smiled again. "Yeah, Lloyd said pretty much the same thing. But don't worry! He's going to help me work things out with her so we can all be friends."

"Hurry up, guys!"

They started walking again before Matt could voice his disbelief.  _Either she's in denial,_  he eventually decided,  _or she's blind. Wanting to make friends with an assassin... Unbelievable._

_... Even though you'd have a massive crush on her if she wasn't trying to kill you._

_Oh, shut up... !_  "Ugh!" he muttered, shaking his head and redoubling his pace. "I'm losing my mind."

* * *

The first thing Lloyd noticed about Izoold was that it smelled like fish. Not the mouth-watering scent of grilled, fried, or otherwise ready-to-eat fish, but the heavy stench of recently caught, dead and dying fish. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, already eager to leave the little fishing village, until he saw the ocean beyond.

A wave of thoughts and emotions crashed over him; he was immediately struck by the vast emptiness of it and felt very small, as he always did when he saw the sea. The sensation brought with it memories of the other times he had felt it, back when he and Genis were younger and would leave Iselia to play at the beach... Actually, it hadn't been all that long ago. The two had done so just the previous summer. Although that was before the oracle had come, before the Journey of Regeneration had started, before he had brought disaster on the village...

He shook his head to try to clear the thoughts away. He would never forget what had happened, but now was not the time to dwell on it.

Colette, meanwhile, had never seen the ocean before, and was immediately filled with a sense of joy and wonder when she finally did so. Genis didn't think much of the sea itself, since seeing it caused him to suddenly worry about Raine. The Professor herself felt nauseous and weak in the knees at the mere sight of it. Matt, like Lloyd, felt altogether dwarfed by the ocean, but was somewhat distracted from the feeling. He was trying to take in as much of the village as he could, in hopes of finding something familiar. Kratos was mostly unenthused.

The group paused soon after entering Izoold. They had arrived at sunset, as planned; Kratos was proving to be adept at accounting for Matt's slower pace when setting their traveling goals for the day. Now, most all the fishermen had hauled in their catches. If they were to find someone to ferry them to Palmacosta, this was their best chance.

Genis looked back to the mountains they had crossed and the sun sinking behind them. "We're not gonna try to cross the sea tonight, are we?"

"No," Kratos answered. "Tonight, you, Lloyd, and I will search for someone who will take us. That way, if we can't find anyone, we can discuss our next move tonight. Professor Sage, please take the Chosen to the inn and rest."

Raine nodded gratefully, her face a shade paler than usual. "Very well," she said, calmly as ever. "Come on, Colette."

"You go on with them, Noishe," Lloyd told his pet. "Don't cause any trouble or they'll make you sleep outside the village!"

Noishe whined once, but complied and went to Colette, who happily reached up to rub his head.

Kratos turned to face Matt as the two girls walked away. "This place is substantially smaller than Triet," he told him. "You should have no problem searching on your own. Meet us at the inn when you've finished."

 _I'm going alone?_  "... OK."

"Good luck, Matt!" Lloyd called out to him as he walked away. His group immediately made for the wharf on the seaward side of town. There were a lot of people out and about, given Izoold's size, and a good number of them paused in their errands to watch the travelers pass by, more out of curiosity than suspicion.

The teen returned a few gazes as they went. "I wonder if his family lives here."

Kratos didn't take it rhetorically. "I highly doubt it."

"What? Why?"

The mercenary gave Lloyd that "disappointed, but not surprised" look of his. "Do you see any of the townspeople wearing clothes like his?"

Lloyd looked around again. Most all of the locals he saw were wearing tunics or dresses, all in varying shades of brown.

"I don't think I've seen his kind of clothes anywhere else," Genis chimed in. "I thought for sure we had all noticed it, Lloyd."

Lloyd bristled at this. "I noticed! I just... I've been too distracted with everything else to think about it much, that's all." He looked back to Kratos when Genis rolled his eyes. "But if his family isn't here, why'd you send him looking for them?" he asked, an irritated edge in his voice.

"Hmph. I don't know if they're here or not; I just find it unlikely they live here. In any case, as long as Matthew travels with us, he should take every opportunity to search for them. Leave no stone unturned; you should know that." Kratos looked away from Lloyd. "Pardon me. Are there currently any ships travelling to Palmacosta?"

Only then did Lloyd realize they had reached the wharf. The swarthy fisherman Kratos had addressed looked over the three of them briefly and returned his attention to the net he was fixing. "Palmacosta? No," he grunted. "Leastways mine's not. Monsters 'ave been attackin' most o' the ships that go too far out. Last one to try an' cross the sea left this mornin'. It'd been weeks since the one before."

Lloyd and Genis were dismayed by the news, but Kratos was very nonchalant about it. "Thank you for your time," he responded, and continued along the wharf. The two boys hurried to follow him.

"What do we do now?" Genis asked. "If what he said is true, I don't think anyone's gonna want to take us."

"We'll try to find out whose ship it was that left this morning," Kratos answered. "Perhaps he'll come back."

That was all Lloyd needed. "Excuse me," he said to the next fisherman they came across - a younger, somewhat fairer-skinned one.

"Huh?"

"We heard a ship left Izoold to cross the sea this morning. Do you know whose it was?"

The man furrowed his brow in thought, but then his expression darkened. "Oh. You mean Aifread."

"Do you know if he will be returning?" Kratos asked.

"Not likely. I heard he was going back to Luin, his hometown."

* * *

Matt quickly realized just how right Kratos had been. Izoold was tiny compared to Triet, and with many of the residents out and about, word of his situation and his search spread quickly. Halfway through, the townspeople began answering his question before he could ask it: no, they had not seen him before, and no, they had not seen his family. As it kept happening, he became increasingly downcast and embarrassed. They were not rude - on the contrary, most were sympathetic - but such attention made him uncomfortable, and each person who ultimately turned him away made his family and his memories feel a little more out of reach.

"Thanks anyway," Matt said glumly, and he looked around. The sun was down and the full moon and stars were out, while standing torches shed light on the village streets. "Um... Which way's the inn?"

The woman he was speaking to rubbed her forehead with a tired expression, causing a lock of curled hair to slip from under her headband and hang in her face. "Follow that path there," she said as she pointed, "back toward the entrance to the village. The Seagull Inn is the building closest to the fence."

"Thank you." With that he turned to leave.

"Good luck to you."

He hesitated, but finally managed to give her a forced smile before going on his way.

There were maybe a dozen houses in Izoold. The only reason it had taken Matt as long as it had was because so many people had been out of their homes; he had little way of knowing if he had spoken to someone from each household. Now, he trudged down the path toward the village outskirts to the building the woman had told him about. Even if he had not known which building it was, Noishe was curled up against one wall, sleeping. Once there, he was directed to one of the inn's four rooms. It was smaller than his room in the Mirage had been, and somewhat dirty, but Matt was prepared to take any room with a bed in his state.

Raine was sitting at a desk reading a book; Colette appeared to be asleep on one of the beds. Matt propped his staff up against the bed nearest the door, took off his cloak, plopped down on the mattress, and kicked off his shoes. Raine looked up at him from her book. "If you're going to bathe, you should do so now, before the others get here," she told him.

Matt blinked.  _I was just getting comfortable..._  "OK. Uh... Where's the bath?"

The elf narrowed her eyes. "It's in the room next door, where you will be staying tonight."

"Oh, alright." He got up to leave the room.

"I don't know what you are."

 _Huh?_  Matt turned to face Raine again. "Excuse me?"

She glared at him, unblinking. "I don't know what you are or where you came from, but I do know you are not from here. I suppose you didn't expect to encounter anyone of elven blood so soon upon your arrival, or perhaps you didn't know what we are capable of-"

" _What are you talking about?_ " Matt interrupted, completely unnerved by now, but not daring to break eye contact. Images of Genis' offensive magic ran through his mind.

She stared back for several uncomfortable seconds, searching his face.

"Hm." At last the professor returned her attention to her book. She quickly closed it, produced another one from her bag, and started flipping through its pages; she was trying to find something, but was having no luck and getting frustrated. At least, that was the impression Matt got before he quickly left for his room.

* * *

"We've found a ship that will take us to Palmacosta," Kratos announced.

The group had reconvened in Raine and Colette's room about an hour after Matt left it the first time. Genis was cooking a light dinner over the fireplace; he could have used the inn's kitchen if he had asked, but he did not want to delay either dinner or the meeting. Everyone else was spread throughout the room, with Kratos standing with his back to the door.

Raine sighed. "Well, that's... a development. How did you do it? We heard there weren't any ships sailing at all."

"It wasn't easy," Lloyd answered uncomfortably. "Basically, this girl Lyla wants us to deliver a letter to a guy in Luin, and she convinced a fisherman named Max to take us."

"Convinced?" Genis snorted. "She bullied him into it. It was kind of scary to watch." He returned his attention to the food and tasted some of it. "Hey, Matt, there should still be some red satay in your bag. I need it."

Matt was still cold and shivering from his bath and didn't feel like digging around for it. He dumped the contents of his pack onto the bed he was sitting on, found the seasoning Genis had "asked" for, and quickly took it to him and returned to his spot.

"So when will we leave for Palmacosta?" Colette asked.

"Max will take us whenever we are ready," said Kratos. "We will depart in the morning, after we have replenished our supplies. Which brings us to the next point. Matthew, did you... What are you doing?"

Matt had become distracted with some of the things that had been in his bag. In particular, he was fiddling with a round, fist-sized object he hadn't seen before. "It's a gyroscope," he murmured, fixated on the device. "What do we have a gyroscope for?"

A gloved hand snatched it from his fingers. "This is an All-Divide," Kratos corrected him, agitated. "It is extremely rare and was hard-won, so please refrain from handling it without need." Instead of giving the thing back to him, the mercenary put it directly into the empty bag.

Matt didn't acknowledge Kratos' rough demeanor; he was staring off into space. "But... it's a gyroscope. It looks just like one." He furrowed his brow. "What does it do?"  _I need to start writing this stuff down somewhere..._

"Now is not the time to-"

"Wait," Raine interrupted. "What did you call it?"

"... satisfy your curiosity," Kratos finished. "How did your search go?"

Matt blinked and shook his head. "They're not here."

"Then I suppose you still wish to travel with us," the older man said dryly.

Lloyd's temper sparked. "You're not really thinking about Matt behind, are you? He hasn't caused any problems or anything!"

"He's slowed us down and put greater strain on our resources," Kratos answered coolly, "and it will be some time before he is able to contribute to our efforts."

 _There it is,_  Matt thought.  _I'm history._

"Furthermore," Raine added, "that assassin is after the Chosen's group. She's proof that he would be safer in other company."

Lloyd clenched a fist. "That's-"

" _However_ ," Kratos continued, glaring impatiently at Lloyd, "I was going to ask Matthew himself what course he would rather take." He turned his gaze back to Matt. "Once you cross the sea, it will be very difficult to come back here if you so desire. Are you sure this is the way you wish to go?"

Matt looked down and took a moment to let his emotions settle and gather his thoughts, vaguely aware that Genis was handing out plates with rice balls. Kratos' words had stung, and he knew that his and Raine's observations were true. At the same time, though, "I want to find my family. My best chance to find them is with you guys." He looked up at each of them in turn. "What's the point of being safe if I have  _nothing_?"

Lloyd spoke up at the same time as Matt's "inner voice," as he thought of it.

" _You're still alive, aren't you?_ "

"You can't find your family if you're dead," Lloyd went on. "But you don't need to find them to live your life, do you?"

The thought resonated within Matt's mind, but it also perturbed him.  _Of course I need to find them! I can't remember anything... They can help me!_  "You changed your tune pretty quickly, didn't you?" he asked Lloyd, trying to distract himself.

Lloyd spread his hands in what looked like a shrug. "I just don't think it's fair at this point to say you can't come with us. It's a different story if you decide you don't want to."

Matt accepted a rice ball from Genis. "Well, what I want is to go home... And I still owe you guys. So I'd like to stay with you, if you'll let me."

"Do you still understand what's expected of you?" Kratos questioned him.

He shrugged. "Become as strong as I can, pull my weight, help protect Colette, right?"

"And learn to fight," Kratos added. "You should eat your dinner and get some sleep. We'll be training in the morning."

 _Ugh... Mornings._  Matt grimaced and took a bite of rice. A few seconds later, he suddenly coughed and his eyes started watering. "That's, uh... got some kick to it," he said in a raspy voice.

* * *

A second round of stance training followed a fairly sound sleep for Matt. It was much the same as the previous morning, but rather than growing frustrated throughout the session, he remained at a steady "mildly irritated" mood. It probably helped that this time, whenever he corrected Matt's movements and positions, Kratos explained to him why doing whatever-it-was correctly and precisely was important.

"If you need to back up quickly and you are standing like that, you will lose your balance and leave yourself vulnerable," he explained. "You won't need to catch yourself if you don't stumble in the first place."

Matt shifted his feet accordingly, trying to ignore the people who stared as they walked by. He and Kratos had been the first ones awake in their party, but the fishermen were heading for their boats at around the same time to begin the day's work, and seeing two strangers training for combat was an unusual and interesting sight for them. Noishe was also watching, but being a... dog-thing, Matt didn't mind him as much.

"Like this?" Matt asked.

Kratos frowned. "Your position is good," he said, "but don't get too comfortable."

"Heh." It was actually an involuntary sound.  _Is this his idea of comfortable?_

The mercenary's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "If you plant yourself like that in battle, a stronger opponent will overpower you. You need to be ready to move in an instant. Be rigid enough to keep your balance, but loose enough to react quickly."

 _So basically try to relax a little?_  Matt did his best to release the tension in his muscles. Suddenly he felt something move inside himself, and his eyes widened. "Wuh-oh."

"What is it?"

"I think I loosened up a little too much. I need, uh..." He looked around nervously.

Kratos sighed and put a hand to his forehead. "Show more self-control in the future. There's an outhouse just outside the village. When you return, we will prepare to depart for Palmacosta."

* * *

When Matt rejoined the group, everyone else had awoken. While they all ate a light breakfast, Raine split them all into two groups. She, Genis, and Colette would buy more gels while Kratos, Lloyd, and Matt went to replenish their food supply. Once they were done, they would regroup at the wharf in preparation to leave.

Matt and Lloyd were both a bit disappointed that the food selection consisted almost entirely of seafood.  _At least it doesn't smell so bad when it's cooked,_  Lloyd thought.

Kratos counted out the paper-wrapped fish, seaweed, and rice and gave them to Matt and Lloyd to carry.

"Five hundred Gald," the shopkeeper told him.

Kratos nodded at him, then looked at the wall behind the counter. "May I see one of those?"

The shopkeeper turned, and hesitantly picked up a barbed fishing spear that was propped up in the corner. "No funny business," he warned, and handed it over.

The two younger men looked at each other, confused. "Um, Kratos?" Lloyd asked. "What are you doing?"

The mercenary was weighing the spear in his hands, getting a feel for its balance. "Matthew is being trained on a quarterstaff so he doesn't accidentally hurt himself," he said without looking at either of them. "He could potentially continue to use it as it improves, but that would be like fighting with a wooden sword all of one's life." He offered it for Matt himself to see. "You should consider what sort of weapon you would like to use when the time comes."

 _In other words... I'm gonna need something that kills?_  He glanced at the blunt ends of his quarterstaff.  _I guess I'll need to kill monsters at some point._  Then he looked again at the wickedly sharp, rear-facing barbs adorning the spear's blade. His stomach churned and his eyes widened as he thought of what they were for, and he gave Kratos an appalled stare. "I don't wanna do that to someone!"

Kratos nodded, and he returned the spear to the clerk, along with some Gald for their food.

Matt suddenly remembered something. "Oh, waitwaitwaitwait! Do you have stuff for writing?"

The shopkeeper blinked in surprise. "One moment." He retreated up the stairs into his living space above the shop.

Something tapped Matt's shoulder, and he turned to see Lloyd looking at him, confused. "What do you want to write for?"

"If I remember things, I want to be able to write it down. And... I don't know, I feel like I should write stuff down anyway. Keep track of what's happened."

The shopkeeper returned with a blank, leather-bound book and something that resembled a pencil. "These are all I have. Fifty Gald."

Kratos paid for the items and handed them to Matt, and he put them in his pack.

As they walked back to the wharf and after they embarked, Kratos told Matt (and Lloyd, who found the topic of weapons interesting regardless of whether he would use them) about the various polearms he could learn to wield. There were bludgeoning weapons, which mostly consisted of morningstars and polehammers; slashing weapons, including poleaxes, naginata, and bardiches; and thrusting weapons, which were the most numerous but largely just included variations of a basic spear. There were also those weapons designed for two or even all three of these functions, like glaives and halberds, but Kratos insisted that Matt first learn more basic weapons before considering them.

When they arrived at the dock, they found Raine, Colette, and Genis already there waiting for them with Noishe, as well as the sailor who would be taking them - the same fisherman who had told them about Aifread.

"Good morning, Max!" Lloyd said cheerfully. "We're ready to go now."

"Alright," Max sighed, "let's get this overwith. Come aboard." With that he crossed a rickety gangplank onto his ship. More than one party member immediately thought the thing looked a bit small for the trip they were taking. Still, Lloyd was the second one aboard, eager to leave the smell of fish behind.

"Come on, Noishe," he murmured, coaxing his pet across the gangplank. "You'll need to stay calm on this boat - you don't want to fall off!"

Raine also needed some emotional support to board the vessel, to everyone's confusion except for Genis. Her nausea and shaky knees returned in force the moment she set foot on the gangplank. Matt winced when she stepped onto the boat and fell to the deck.

"Hey, how long is this leg anyway?" he asked Kratos in an undertone.

"We should arrive at Palmacosta tomorrow morning."

"Yeesh. A full day and night at sea? She's gonna be a wreck." Matt furrowed his brow. "Wait. What do we do until we get there?"

Kratos shrugged. "Entertain yourself." Lloyd, Genis and Colette cheered as the sails were unfurled and the fishing boat started moving, and the merc rolled his eyes. "You will probably have an easier time of it than some of the others."


	8. Maritime Intermission

Matt spun his staff in front of him, pinning the card that had been thrown at him to the ground.

It blew up where it lay, showering the area in smoke and dust; he did not even feel it.

When the air cleared, there she was again. The assassin had found him.

He glared at her. "I won't go down so easily this time!"

She ignored his remark and charged him, cards raised. He was ready for her.

He stepped aside to dodge her strike and answered with a blow to her ankles.

The ninja fell face first to the ground, and Matt touched the end of his staff to the back of her neck. "Yield."

He allowed her to turn over onto her back, and she looked at him in surprise. "Wow. That was pretty good!"

Matt smiled and planted his staff on the ground, knowing somehow that she wouldn't attack again. "Thanks. I've been training."

A piercing whistle and a flutter of feathers filled his ears; his grin broadened when he saw a gray, yellow-faced bird land on his shoulder.

"Sam! You found me!"

The ninja rose to her feet. "What's that?" she asked.

"This is my bird, Sam." Matt rubbed the little animal's head with one finger, and it happily closed its eyes. "How'd you get here, bud?"

The bird opened its eyes and took off again, flew a few circles around him, and landed again, hopping and shrieking impatiently.

 _He's never acted like this before._  "Can you lead me back?"

Sam shrieked once more and took off again, making a beeline across the plain.

Matt stared in wonder for a moment. "He's gonna take me home!" he realized, and started running after his pet.

He suddenly became aware that the ninja was running alongside him. "Can I come with you?" she asked.

"Oh! Sure! Let's go!" he shouted between breaths. "My name's Matt."

She smiled. "I'm Sheena. Hey, Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Matt, wake up."

He stopped running. "What?" The ground rocked beneath him and he fell to his knees.

Sheena stood over him and shook him by the shoulders. "MATT!"

" _Huh?!_ " He opened his eyes. Sheena disappeared and was replaced by Genis; the open plain was suddenly a wood-walled room.

The elf-boy's eyebrows flattened in an irritated expression. "Lunch is ready, and the others said we should wake you up."

Matt blinked.  _Ugh, that's right. I took a nap. That was all a dream, then._  He sat up on the bench he was lying on, working against the rocking of the boat, and stretched and yawned. "Genis, you ruined it," he grunted.  _Let's see... That means I still suck at fighting, the assassin is still after us, her name's not Sheena, and Sam's nowhere to be found. Brilliant._

Genis recoiled. "What do you mean? You haven't seen it yet - you don't even know what I made!"

"Doesn't matter," Matt answered as he stood up and scratched the bandage on his head, vaguely aware they were having two different conversations. "It's gone, I can't get it back, and it's your fault." He started taking wobbly steps toward the door of the cabin. "It had to happen sometime, I guess, so I forgive you. Come on, let's eat."

Genis stood there for a few seconds longer, completely at a loss, before he decided to drop the matter and go back outside.

* * *

XXX

... And that brings us to today, May 10. Writing it all out like this, I guess things have been kinda crappy lately. But I'm not stopping. Most of what's been happening will make me stronger. Mostly, I just want to get back whatever all I've lost. I don't think I'll ever be able to actually help these guys. But if I can come out the other side with more than I had before... I don't know. It might end up being worth it.

XXX

Matt touched one end of his pencil to the corner of his mouth and read over what he had written so far as he sat at the ship's prow, his back to the railing. After lunch, there had been little for him to do, so he had decided to sit outside on the deck and start recording his experiences, beginning with waking up in the desert with no memories and a massive headache. As he re-read what he had written, he realized he had learned very little about his companions' personal lives.  _Guess I should actually try talking to them sometime..._

"You can probably take that bandage off now."

He straightened up, startled, and then hunched over with a sigh.  _Awareness, Matt. Awareness,_  he berated himself. "You think so?"

Raine nodded. Her tired expression, shaking knees, and firm grip on the railing didn't escape Matt's notice. "You've had plenty of time to heal with the apple gels we've given you." She glanced at the open book in Matt's lap. "Is that the All-Divide?"

"Yeah, that's it," Matt answered as he unwound the cloth from his head.  _And stop reading over my shoulder!_

The elf didn't notice his irritation; she kept peering at the crude illustration of three rings built around a wheel and axle. "Hmm. What was it you called it, again? A gyroscope?"

Matt closed his journal, pocketed his pencil, and stood. "That's right. No, I don't remember what it does," he said, preemptively answering her next question. He had one of his own to ask - what had she meant by her cryptic words the night before?

Raine nodded, and she didn't give him time to ask. "All-Divides are pieces of Magitechnology with unknown origin-"

"What-technology?"

The professor frowned at the interruption. "Machines that are powered by mana. An All-Divide uses its mana to double the physical durability of all living things within range of its effects, for a limited time."

Matt turned this over in his head. That didn't sound like what a gyroscope was supposed to do at all. "So basically... all attacks only do half the normal damage?"

"That's one way to look at it."

"Well what's the point of that? If the strength of each fighter stays the same, it sounds like it would just make a fight take twice as long."

"A good observation," a third voice interjected.

 _Oh, good,_  Matt thought.  _It was getting lonely over here._

Kratos approached and stood near them. "Think, Matthew," he said, folding his arms. "When might it be useful to halve the damage being dealt in battle?"

Matt recalled the fights he had witnessed in the past few days.  _Monsters... Bandits... The ninja... Well, maybe I would've taken that hit better, but my own attacks would've been useless_.  _Well... more than they already are, anyway. What good would that have done?_  "I guess getting blown into the mountainside wouldn't have hurt as much," he joked, trying to mask his frustration. He noticed Lloyd, Colette, and Genis approaching.

Kratos frowned. "That's one obvious answer."

Genis butted in before Matt could think of a retort. "You're talking about the All-Divide, right? Taking less damage from an attack means you can fight longer before you need to be healed, and it gives you a chance to survive otherwise fatal attacks."

Lloyd broke out in an excited grin at the idea, but Colette tilted her head, thoughtful. "But if it does the same thing to an enemy," she wondered, "wouldn't that make them harder for us to beat, too?"

"That's what I'm saying!" Matt exclaimed, glad he wasn't the only one having trouble with this.

Lloyd's smile faded and was replaced by a scowl. His thoughts weren't idle, though. "What if the enemy  _can't_  heal? If they don't have gels or a healer-"

Matt's face lit up, seeing where this was going. "-Or if we can put enough pressure on them to keep them from using healing spells-"

"We can whittle them down bit by bit while we keep our health up," Genis concluded triumphantly.

"Very good," Kratos acknowledged. "But you still haven't answered the question. With all that in mind, when is the best time to use an All-Divide?"

Matt thought for a moment longer. "... When fighting a lone opponent who's too strong for us to beat otherwise. The fewer, the better."

The mercenary nodded in approval. "Precisely. I would have used it in our fight against the sword-wielding monster if I had thought of it."

"Why don't you take such interest in your lessons, Lloyd?" Raine asked accusingly. She didn't wait for an answer, but turned around and made her way to the cabin.

* * *

After a few more hours passed, Matt decided he should spend some time talking with each of the others on board, Max included. He wanted to learn everything they were willing to tell him about themselves - which turned out to be precious little in Kratos' case. The older man wouldn't say anything about himself except that he was a traveling mercenary, so Matt gave up fairly quickly with him. Max wasn't much different, since he was busy keeping the ship on course and wasn't in the mood for talking anyway. Colette, on the other hand, opened right up and told him about her hometown of Iselia, beaming all the while: her grandmother and adoptive father, her classmates, her house, the school, and growing up in the village with Lloyd and Genis.

 _That makes sense_ , Matt thought.  _Raine being their teacher, all of them acting like old friends - of course they came from the same place. But why does Iselia sound familiar?_  He tuned back in to what the Chosen was saying:

"... but then the string broke, and the ball hit Lloyd in the head and knocked him out!" Colette giggled.

Matt winced, but couldn't help but chuckle at the end of Colette's story. "Now  _that's_  irony. He makes a kendama and it KO's him." He sighed as his laughter ceased, and his mind started to wander a little. "It sounds like you've had a good childhood. And a good home to go back to once you finish this journey. Friends to have fun with, family who loves you..."

He faltered; Colette's expression had changed. Her smile was gone, and her eyes were downcast. Matt had never seen her sad before, and he could not have pictured it until then.

 _Did I make her homesick? Or... is that pity? Or what?_  "Um... You OK?"

Her eyes snapped back to his for an instant before she closed them and smiled again. "What? Oh, I'm fine!" she said quickly.

Matt gave her a flat look. "I don't buy it." He instantly regretted his words; Colette stared, seemingly shocked. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No," she interrupted, collecting herself, "it's OK. The truth is..." She looked sadly at the deck. "Things... won't be the same after the journey. Lloyd, he... No. I don't think I can tell you about that. You should ask him about it."

Matt blinked.  _Whatever it is, it sounds like a bit of a downer... I'd better save that for last, I guess._  "OK. I'll do that."

Next he went looking for Raine, figuring she would be in the cabin. He found Genis standing by the door near the boat's railing, practicing with his kendama.

"Whatcha doing, Genis?"

The elf didn't answer; he just kept hitting the ball with the little wooden hammer.

Matt watched for a few more seconds before reaching for the cabin door's latch.

"Icicle!"

He turned around again in time to see a flash of light shoot out of the ball, and a miniature iceberg formed in the water behind the boat.

"I thought you had already learned that one," Matt remarked.

Genis stuck the kendama in the back of his shorts, where he usually kept it, and turned to face him. "Yeah, but I still need to practice it. I don't want to cast the wrong spell by mistake, or miss the enemy, or accidentally hit my friends."

"Huh. That makes sense. I didn't know magic worked like that."

Genis folded his arms; having to look up at Matt annoyed him. "Well it does. And distractions make me mess up, so don't bother me when I'm casting."

"Oh. Uh, sorry about that. I'll, uh... leave you to it then."

"I'm not practicing now. Was there something you wanted?"

Matt thought for a moment. "Well, as long as you're not busy, I've kinda been wondering why you use a kendama when you use magic. Also, usually when you and your sister and Kratos use magic, those lights appear on the ground. Why didn't that happen just now?"

Genis nodded and leaned against the railing. "OK. Well, first of all, my kendama helps me concentrate when I'm casting. I focus better when I have something to do with my hands."

"Is that why Lloyd made it for you?" Matt asked. "Colette told me about the time you accidentally knocked him out," he said quickly in response to Genis' look of surprise.

The elf's gaze softened and he grinned at the memory. "It's funnier now than it was then. Yeah, he made it for me when I first started learning magic. It's one of the best presents I've ever gotten - it helps me learn magic, I can hit things with it if I really need to, and it gives me something to do when I'm bored."

"Makes sense. What about the lights on the ground?"

Genis took a breath. "That's what happens when a spellcaster is preparing to attack or heal. When magic-users prepare a spell, their mana starts to fluctuate and expand so the caster can re-shape it into the form they want. When that happens, some of the mana escapes the caster's control and turns into light, and it can't actually be used. My mana did that too, but you couldn't see it just now because I only used a little bit of it to practice my aim. If I'd actually been attacking, I would've used more mana and more of it would've escaped as light."

Matt frowned. "Hold on. Mana's life-force, right?"

"It's the energy all living things need to survive. Why?"

"You're telling me you use the stuff keeping you alive to attack people, and some of it just leaks out into the world?" He shuddered a little. "That's weird. Isn't it dangerous?"

Genis shook his head. "Not really. It's not possible to accidentally release enough mana to hurt yourself or anything around you. It'd have to be done on purpose."

"Gotcha." Matt shifted uncomfortably. The subject of Genis' parents did not seem like one he should bring up lightly, but he had no other ideas of what to talk about. The mage, however, broke the silence before he could excuse himself.

"Have you remembered anything since Triet?"

The question caught him off-guard. "Uh... no. I mean, I remembered the word 'gyroscope.' But everything else has just been deja vu."

"Like what?"

Recalling a specific instance turned out to be difficult for Matt; a loud whine from Noishe elsewhere on the boat brought one to mind. "A dog. A little dog, white and brown fur, pointed ears." His forehead wrinkled. "I saw it in my mind just before we left Triet. I have no idea where or when I've seen it before."  _Stupid, useless memory..._

"That sounds frustrating."

 _Huh?_ Of the possible responses, he hadn't really expected empathy from Genis.

The boy looked down at his feet. "The memories you have -they're only half-there, really. What good is that? It might actually be better to not have them at all."

 _Wow. He gets it..._  "That's..." Matt scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. That's basically it." He shrugged. "But if they're partly back now, there's a chance it'll all come back, right?"

Genis shrugged in turn, raising his hands as he did. "Maybe, but I don't know. I hope it does, though."

"Well, thanks. And thanks for asking." He said no more about it, and when Genis took out his kendama again, Matt took it as his cue to go.  _Guess I should practice, too._

However, Genis' attention snapped back to him when the latch on the cabin door clicked open. "Raine's in there," he said warningly, "and she's not feeling well."

"Then I'll make it quick," Matt promised. "I'll get my staff and be right out."

The elf looked at him dubiously, but said nothing and resumed his target practice. Matt entered the cabin.

The room was lit by a single lamp and the sunlight that came in through the open door; the boat's caulking let no outside light through. There was Raine, sitting on the bench Matt had slept on earlier, with an open book on her lap. She looked up at Matt as he entered and promptly closed it.

This gave Matt pause, but he shrugged it off and looked around for his quarterstaff; it was propped up in the corner of the room beside Raine's staff, where he had left it.

"Still feeling seasick?" he asked nonchalantly as he walked over to pick it up.

"Hmph. I was never seasick. I do feel better now, in any case."

 _Not seasick? Then what...? Ah, whatever._  "Fair enough." He motioned to the book in her lap with one hand while he reached for his staff with the other. "Whatcha readi-"

He did a double-take, and his staff clattered to the floor.

"... Hey, HEY! Give me that!" he shouted, and he jumped over to the professor and snatched his journal away from her.

Raine startled, and then hanged her head with a sigh.

Genis burst through the open doorway, kendama in hand. "What's going on here!?" he demanded, plainly agitated.

Matt very nearly called Raine a snoop to Genis' face, but reluctantly thought better of it. Making the boy mad would undoubtedly be hazardous, but he was too angry and flustered to think of a different way to put it. The appearance of Lloyd, Colette, and Kratos at the doorway did nothing to help matters.

"Is something the matter?" the mercenary asked in his flat monotone.

An uncomfortable silence followed while Matt tried to think of the words "Raine was reading my journal without permission." Raine herself spoke up before he had quite managed it.

"It's alright. Genis, everyone, please leave for a moment," she groaned. "I believe I owe Matthew an apology."

After a second, shorter silence, Kratos and Colette departed, and Lloyd led Genis out onto the deck. The mage did not resist, but never took his suspicious glare off Matt until he was out of view.

Matt returned his glare to the professor. "I don't  _want_  an apology right now," he spat. "I want to know what your problem is."

"Matthew, I-"

"You keep staring at me like I have three eyes, or like I did something wrong! Then last night, you - I don't even know what that was! It sounded like you were accusing me of something!" He lifted his journal to eye level. "And now you're digging through my stuff!"

"You never said it was a private journal," Raine pointed out.

"You still took it without asking," Matt shot back. "I don't do that with any of your books, but that's not the point." He tucked the book under one arm, fuming. Voicing his complaints had helped him sort everything out, and he had an idea of what was going on now. He still wanted to make her say it, just to be sure. "What gives?"

Up to this point, Raine had been staring fixedly at the wooden floor. Now, she looked him in the eye, still frowning, but her expression was stern. "I don't trust you," she said thickly.

" _There_  it is." He picked up his bag, which had been sitting open beside Raine's feet, and stuffed his journal into it. "Why not?" he demanded. "I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"

There was a brief pause. "Not that I'm aware of. The problem is what you  _are_ ," she answered.

This took Matt aback, but it did not lessen his anger. "You said something like that yesterday. What's it supposed to mean?"

Raine studied his face for another moment, betraying no emotion except disdain. Finally, "You really don't know, do you."

"Don't know what? What you're talking about? No, I really don't."

Raine nodded and rose to her feet, breaking off eye contact and looking straight ahead. "In any case, you seem to believe your own story. I'll still be watching you, but I will not invade your privacy again. I apologize."

Matt bristled. "If you're gonna be watching me like that," he protested as she walked to the door, "I think I deserve to know why!"

The elf did not respond. She left him standing, confused and frustrated, in the cabin.

With a huff, he retrieved his staff and left the room.

* * *

"If you can master this at this point in your training, building strikes and blocks into your fighting style will be simpler."

Matt held onto the thought just long enough for it to motivate him, and then let it slip away to better focus on the dozen other things he had to think about. Quickly as he could, he reoriented himself and his quarterstaff from his right-handed defensive stance to his right-handed offensive one.

Kratos gave a quick nod to his effort. "That's the basic idea. However, your movements are too erratic to guard yourself in combat. Try again, and this time, try to make the transition more fluid."

Matt grunted and prepared to execute the motion again.

This was not like his morning training sessions; he had decided to practice battle stances on his own, partly to get better at them, partly to get his mind off his conversation with Professor Raine. Shortly after he had started, Kratos had approached and begun giving him advice and instruction. At first, this consisted of making small adjustments to his posture to make sure he did not leave himself open to attack, but now, the mercenary was having him practice rapidly switching between each of his four stances. Kratos was as nitpicky as ever, but since he had more or less initiated this lesson, Matt was more patient this time. It helped that there was little nearby to distract him, unlike the morning's training session. Only Lloyd and Noishe spectated, while the others occupied themselves elsewhere on the boat.

This particular stance change was proving to be more difficult than it sounded. Shifting his lower body was hard enough for Matt when he was being held to Kratos' standards, but he also needed to pivot his staff from a diagonal in front of his body to pointing one end at his target. When using only right-handed stances, this meant reversing each hand's grip, lowering the right-hand side to his waist, and raising the left-hand side more or less in front of him, all while shifting both hands to the right-hand side for optimal range and control.

Matt tried to imagine how the motion was supposed to look and feel, and tried again.

Just as he did, a small breaker hit the bow of the fishing boat, causing the deck to buck beneath his feet and send him sprawling facefirst.

"Aaaaaahahouch!" He gingerly climbed to his feet and looked around. His landing had not hurt that much, but he immediately worried about whether the others had noticed his fall. This fear was needless; he could see Genis and Colette also pushing themselves off the deck, Raine pale-faced and seated on a bench while holding the railing in a white-knuckled deathgrip, and everybody looking around in surprise and confusion.

"There!" Max suddenly cried out, and he pointed to the sea off the boat's left side. "Off the port stern!"

The entire group sans Max, Raine, and Noishe rushed to see what was happening.

In the gradually fading sunlight, Matt could just make out a shape moving beneath the water's surface. It looked to be even larger than Noishe, with a round midsection and six smaller appendages, four of them flailing frantically.

He recognized the shape. "It's a turtle. A really big tur-  _OHMYGOSHWHATISTHAT?_ "

Something else was following the shelled creature, and swiftly overtaking it. It was too far beneath the surface for any of its features to be visible, but it was easily larger than the boat they were sailing in, and despite being submerged, it was leaving a large wake in its path.

"What  _is_  that thing?" Colette breathed.

When the shadowy leviathan had almost caught up to the turtle, a large, rounded snout filled with pointed teeth appeared at its front and engulfed the back half of its quarry. The waves the creature was making caught up to the spot and the water began to churn, hiding the rest of the scene from view; then, just as quickly, the surface calmed, and both predator and prey were gone without a trace.

Kratos quickly took stock of the situation. Despite the scare, they were not in any immediate danger as far as he could tell. However, he seemed to be the only one not in a slack-jawed stupor. He sighed to himself. "We were told there were monsters out here," he announced to them, "but this is actually fortunate. Whatever that creature was, that tortoise will take it some time to consume, and we will be out of harm's way by then."

"What if there are more of them?" Lloyd asked with a shaky voice.

"That is highly unlikely," Kratos answered evenly. "Large carnivores are usually solitary, with large territories. A given area can only provide so much sustenance for them. Isn't that right, Genis?"

"Y-yeah, that's right," the boy stuttered.

The others accepted this reassurance tentatively and slowly left the railing. The professor quickly but cautiously made her way back to the cabin; Genis and Colette followed her. Seeing this, Matt slowly sat down on the now vacant bench, wide-eyed, holding his staff loosely beside him. Without a word, Lloyd sat beside him, with a similar expression on his face. Noishe sat on the deck next to Lloyd, whimpering.

The mercenary sighed.  _They're getting old for this._  He approached the three with an air of nonchalance; they did not look at him at first. "From what I could tell, Matthew," he said, and waited for him to make eye contact, "that stance change was going to be shoddy at best. If you wish to become a competent fighter in any decent amount of time, you should do as you did today and practice stance changes on your own time. And Lloyd - " the teen looked up at him here - "I believe you could benefit from training as well."

The blankness in Lloyd's stare vanished and was replaced with bewilderment.

"Our next session will be on our first morning back on dry land," Kratos continued. "Would you like to join us?"

"Uh... Yeah, I'll do that," Lloyd answered.

Kratos nodded once. "Very well." With that, he walked to the cabin.

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"You know he's a tough teacher, right?" Matt ventured.

Lloyd wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, I figured. But as much as I hate to admit it, he's a great swordsman. I'd be a fool if I didn't take him up on it."

"He gets on your nerves, doesn't he?"

"He just acts so high-and-mighty all the time!" The teen clenched a fist at his side.

 _Maybe we should talk about something else..._  "From what I gather," Matt said cautiously, "he's the only one of you guys who's not from Iselia."

This diffused Lloyd's mounting anger. "Well, I'm not really from Iselia, either."

"Wait, what?"

Lloyd reached up to scratch Noishe's head. "I spent a lot of time in the village, but Dad's house is in the forest outside."

"Huh. OK, that's fair. I don't think you've mentioned your dad before."

"I haven't? ... Well, he's a craftsman - the best in the world. He made these swords for me." The teen drew the sword from his left scabbard and handed it to Matt, hilt first.

Matt looked it over. It felt a little heavy, but it was everything he imagined a sword should be: sleek and deadly, with a cold beauty to its gently curved blade. "Dang. Your dad made this?"

Lloyd grinned. "Yeah. And ever since I could hold tools, he's been teaching me, too. I'm nowhere near as good as he is, and I might never be since he's a dwarf, but I can do a lot of the things he can."

Matt blinked and shook is head. "Waitwaitwait. Your dad's a dwarf?"

"Yeah, that's right." Lloyd's expression became more serious. "He found me, Noishe, and my mom in the woods near his house, and he took me in and raised me, so he's my dad."

 _Aw, crap, I wasn't ready for this..._  "Then your parents..."

Lloyd's face fell. "My mom was dying when Dad found us. I... don't know what happened to my birth-father." He sighed. "But in the end, it's OK. Dad helped me grow into who I am today. He loves me, and I love him."

This lifted Matt's spirits, but it occurred to him that something wasn't adding up. "I've got a question," he stated as he handed the sword back to its owner.

Lloyd took it and sheathed it. "What's that?"

Matt paused. "From what I gather, all of you guys from Iselia have good lives there. But Colette told me earlier that once this Journey's done, things won't be the same there... She said it had something to do with you."

A change came over Lloyd, one Matt had not yet seen. All warmth in his expression drained away, leaving plainly visible sorrow and remorse in its place.

 _Crap, crap, crap._  "You don't have to tell me if you'd rather not," Matt said quickly.

"No," Lloyd responded quietly. "If you're gonna be traveling with us, you might as well know."

Matt listened while the teen told him about the Desian human ranch located in the same forest his house was in, and about the treaty which had existed between the Desians and the village. He gaped at his story of his and Genis' visit to the ranch, the living conditions of the people within, and their ill-fated effort to save a friend of Genis from the abuse. He became depressed when he heard about the sacking of Iselia, the cruel circumstances that led to the death of Genis' friend, and the banishment of the two boys from the village.

 _The merchant back in Triet... He said something about Iselia, that they wouldn't be able to buy his stuff. That's why the name sounded familiar..._  He considered telling this observation to Lloyd once he finished, but thought better of it.

"I'll still have a home to go back to once this is over," Lloyd said wistfully, "and Genis could probably just come live with me and Dad. But Colette's right." He put a hand on Noishe's shoulder. "Things won't be the same."

The not-dog whined and put his large head on Lloyd's lap. Matt could not even look the teen in the eye, so he watched Noishe while he thought.  _Where do we even go from here?_  "That's... that's terrible," he murmured lamely. He realized how exactly he had said it. "Not you, just... all of it."  _Nice save..._

"I know. I failed Marble, and the people of Iselia paid the price. I wanted to come on this journey to help Colette, to protect her. At first it was only because she's my friend, but now... I need to atone for my mistake, and I need to get stronger so I don't make any more."

Now Matt looked at Lloyd. His gaze was pointed at Noishe, but his eyes had a far-off look to them.  _Great. I'd better not leave it at that..._  Matt held a hand near Noishe's nose for a moment and slowly tried to rub his jaw. The creature recoiled, but relaxed just enough for him to give him a scratch. "Well, if nothing else, it's a good thing you have these guys to travel with," he remarked as cheerfully as he thought appropriate.

That seemed to do the trick; Lloyd smiled thoughtfully. "I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, maybe if Dad could come - but he has his own work to do, and he's not much of a traveler."

"Oh, come on," Matt laughed. "He's gotta be more of a traveler than me."

The teen chuckled. "You're not  _that_  bad, and you're getting better." A sound came from the cabin, and he looked to see Kratos, Colette, and Genis brought Raine out of it; Genis began gathering the ingredients for dinner, Kratos went to speak with Max, and Colette led Raine by the hand to the railing at the back of the boat. "You're right, though. I'm glad we're all here."

* * *

The night passed without incident; Colette and Raine shared the cabin, while the others found places to sleep on the deck. Max showed Kratos the basics of manning the helm and rested until midnight, and then relieved him.

Matt slept deeply and peacefully wrapped in his cloak that night - the best he had that he could remember. A pinch on the arm woke him in the morning, but he ignored it as best he could and tried to fall asleep again. Then it happened again.

He lifted his arm and waved it about without opening his eyes. "Knock it off," he groaned.

There was a rustling noise, and a third pinch. This time, he reacted much faster; he swung his arm and struck his assailant.

A loud, heart-stopping screech filled his ears and he bolted upright, now wide awake. He looked up just in time to see a seagull flying away from the boat, leaving swirling feathers on the deck.

The commotion woke the others from their sleep. Genis sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Ugh... Matt, did you just hit that bird?"

Matt looked around and noticed a few feathers stuck to his hand. "Uh... I guess so."

"What'd you do that for?" Lloyd complained grumpily. "Now you woke me up."

Matt's ears suddenly felt warm. "... No, no, I didn't do it on purpose! It was... pecking my arm, I guess, and it woke me up. I thought someone was pinching me!"

"So you hit it? In that case, be grateful I was not the one to wake you up. It would have gone poorly for you," Kratos muttered, as dry as ever, but not seeming particularly annoyed.

"I... don't doubt it." Now, Matt became aware that there were several seagulls nearby, some circling the ship, some flying to or away from it on one invisible path extending from the bow. He followed their flight with his eyes to the horizon, and he saw the sun rising from behind the shore.  _Oh! We're almost there!_ He stood and pointed. "Hey, look! Land ho!"

The others rose and went to the bow to see better for themselves; they were soon joined by Raine and Colette.

"We should arrive at Palmacosta in a few hours," Max informed them. "Barring some disaster."

Genis hardly heard him; he was straining his eyes to get a better glimpse of their destination. Suddenly he grabbed Lloyd's arm with one hand and pointed with the other, practically jumping in place. "I see it! There it is!"

Everyone looked to where he was pointing, and they saw a hill near the water in the distance, colored brown, gray, and blue. "Are those buildings?" Matt wondered aloud. "Dang, that place is huge!"

"Indeed," Kratos answered. "You have your work cut out for you if you intend to speak with everyone in the city, Matthew."

 _Always so negative,_  Lloyd griped to himself. "Think of it, Matt! It's the biggest city in the world. If your family's on this continent, they'll most likely be here!"

"Don't forget the next clues for the Journey of Regeneration will be found here, as well," Raine chided him.

Matt stared at their port of call. The next stage of his search - and probably the biggest one - was about to begin, alongside the next chapter of his companions' quest. If his mission proved fruitful here, their paths would most certainly part, and they might regardless. A stray thought threatened to conflict with his longing for his family and memories, but he cut it off before it became coherent. He had work to do; contemplating could come later.

"Well," he said in a chipper tone, "good hunting to all of us, then."


	9. Palmacosta and Beyond

XXX

May 11

We came in sight of Palmacosta at sunrise this morning. Even after that, it took us a few hours to reach shore, and we were stopped on the way by a warship and boarded by members of the Palmacostan army. They didn't really suspect us of anything once they saw us, but their commander said they had to take precautions anyway. They made a record of each of us and our supplies and let us go without a hassle, and we docked and disembarked. Max said he was going to get some rest before starting back for Izoold - hopefully escorted by a warship in case he runs into another sea monster.

After we said good-bye to Max, things started going wrong. We were going to split up - Kratos, Colette, and Raine to the cathedral for help finding the next seal, Genis and Lloyd to visit the school, and me to the government building to ask the governor-general about missing persons. Just as we left the docks, though, there was some kind of accident involving Colette, some other girl, and a broken jar of potion. One of the other girl's friends sounded like he was gonna start a fight over it, but the others in their group insisted it will be enough if we just replace it. It's fair enough, I guess, but it also means some of the others' errands will have to wait until the afternoon, and I'll probably get dragged through them, too.

The governor-general is a man called Dorr. He's friendly enough, and he cares about the Palmacostans as well as travelers and visitors, and everyone I've asked seems to like him because he openly defies the Desians. When I first told him I was looking for my family, the room got quiet. He told me Desians have been attacking people on the roads and carrying them off to their human ranch. He's doing everything he can to bring them all back, but he also said it'll be easier to help me if they know who exactly I'm looking for. That's when I told them about my memory.

Dorr sent me with his second-in-command, Neil, to check the city's population records for my name - if they could find me in there, they could find my family. But my name wasn't there. That basically means my family has never lived here. If they passed through, I have no way of knowing it. I guess I'll ask Kratos what he thinks I should do once he gets back. As I write this, I'm waiting to meet him in the market at the docks, like he asked me to do before we split up.

There he is now - more later.

XXX

Matt flipped his journal shut and stood from the chair he had found as Kratos approached, and he was surprised to see the rest of the group following behind him.  _I thought for sure they'd all be running around town still..._  He waved at them when the mercenary paused to look around the bustling open-air market, and they walked toward each other. "What gives?" he asked them once they were in earshot. "I thought you all had things to do."

"Nice to see you too, Matt," Genis muttered as he rolled his eyes.

"There's been a change of plans," Kratos explained. "We're staying together as long as we're in Palmacosta. Don't ask why yet."

Matt closed his mouth.

"For now, come with us. There's something I want to do here at the docks."

The group followed him to one of the vendor's stands; an impressive array of weaponry lined both the table and the walls of the stall. The man sitting behind the table stood when they approached.

"Welcome to Tsunami!" he greeted them in a rough but friendly voice. "What might you be looking for? New blades for the two swordsmen, perhaps?"

Lloyd's eyes gleamed when he saw some of the swords available, but Kratos noticed and pulled him back a few paces. "I'm looking for polearms," he answered, and he gestured to Matt. "For this one here."

Matt looked at Kratos in surprise.  _He's getting me an upgrade already?! I thought I was still a ways off from using actual weapons..._

The vendor took one look at Matt and his quarterstaff and clapped his hands. "Splendid, splendid! I've just expanded my selection, as it happens. Ordinarily, common travelers favor swords and the like above all other armaments, so I don't often have many pole weapons. But you're in luck! I-"

"May I see one of those spears?" Kratos interrupted.

He immediately stopped talking and looked where the mercenary had indicated. A look of distaste came over him as he retrieved a spear. "One of these old things? They're hardly fit to hunt pigs with. I'll sell it to you if you want it, but I have much better wares you'd be pleased with."

Kratos took it from him and examined it over for just a moment before handing it to Matt, trading it for the quarterstaff for the time being.

Matt looked the thing up and down. It was a little longer than his staff, with a short metal blade fixed to one end. However, the shaft was thinner, lighter, and felt weaker than the quarterstaff, and it had a rough finish.  _The splinters on this thing are more dangerous than the blade_ _..._

He handed it directly to the vendor. "So, uh... what would you recommend for a beginner who might need to fight?"

The man grinned and tossed the spear aside, letting it clatter to the ground beside its stand. "I have just the thing!" he declared, and picked up a different weapon from a stand beside the wall, one of three identical pieces. "This is genuine Palmacostan army standard-issue! An old captain retired recently and sold off some of his collection to me!"

Matt examined the weapon before taking it. It looked like a spear, but the blade was wider at the base and sported a curved hook on one side, with a short spike on the other. The finish on the pole appeared to be smooth, and the blunt end was capped with metal, like his quarterstaff. He took it hesitantly from the vendor's outstretched hands; it was a bit heavier than he had expected, but manageable, and the pole section felt sturdy. _Seems good to me... But I don't know. Oh well._  He showed it to Kratos. "What do you think?" he asked tentatively.

The mercenary studied it, but did not move to take it. "A bill? Hmm... It looks to be of good quality." He looked Matt in the eye. "You will need to rely on thrusting attacks if you choose it. If you can learn to utilize the hook in battle, that skill can be applied to similar weapons. Is this your choice?"

 _I'll probably need to stick with it at least for a while if I pick it..._ Matt turned to the others, who had gathered to see the weapons on display. "Can I get some room?"

They moved aside, and he went into the open space and tried his battle stances with the bill. Its balance turned out to be closer to the middle of the pole than he had expected. Satisfied, he planted the blunt end on the ground, like he typically did when walking with his quarterstaff. "Yeah. This one's good."

Kratos nodded and returned his attention to the vendor. "How much?"

"1,350 gald," the man answered.

Lloyd flinched. "That's kind of expensive. It's even more than the Palma potion!"

"Palma potion?" The vendor frowned. "What's the price of Palma potion got to do with this?"

"It's of no consequence," Kratos said coolly. "Could you sell it to us for one thousand?"

The man scratched his head. "That's a little low... How about twelve hundred?"

"Eleven hundred," Kratos countered.

Instead of getting frustrated like Matt expected, the vendor laughed softly. "You drive a hard bargain. I'll tell you what. Since you travelers are obviously in a tight spot, I'll sell you the bill and this razor for 1,175 gald." He produced the small blade from a wooden box on his table. "You certainly could use one, couldn't you?" he asked.

Matt touched the side of his face; his beard had grown out and felt softer since he had last checked, but he still preferred a clean shave to a full beard.

Kratos checked the money bag and thought it over, ultimately deciding they could afford the price and still have enough left to top off their supplies. He handed the gald over and gave the razor to Matt.

The vendor counted out the coins and put them into a locked box. "Pleasure doing business with you!" he said with a smile. "If anything I sell you breaks, bring it back and we'll see about getting it fixed."

"Thank you!" Matt called over his shoulder as the group left the market. Kratos grabbed his shoulder and looked at him sternly.

"This is the last time we will pay for your equipment out of our collective funds," he told him, and he gave the quarterstaff back. "If you wish at any time to try a different weapon, you will need to raise your own gald." He released his shoulder.

Matt's mood went from chipper to somber to confused as the mercenary spoke. "Hold it. Why are you telling me this?" he asked as he put the staff in his right hand with the bill. "I didn't tell you how it went with the governor-general yet."

"Were they able to help you?" Raine asked over her shoulder.

"... No," he admitted grudgingly. "I wasn't in any of their records, so there's no way of knowing if my family was ever here. For all I know, they could be at the ranch."

"Don't speak of that here," Kratos warned.

To Matt's surprise, Lloyd put a hand on his shoulder. "You've only been to three towns since losing your memory. They've gotta be out there somewhere, right?"

He struggled to find his tongue; the gesture had caught him off-guard. "Uh... yeah. Here's hoping. Anyway, where are we going next?"

"To the Governor-General's office," Raine answered. "We've been to the school and replaced the Palma potion, and since you've effectively finished your search here, it's time to continue the Journey of Regeneration."

* * *

"But this means... the Chosen we gave the Book of Regeneration to was an impostor?!"

The Book of Regeneration had been brought to the party's attention by Pastor Marche in Palmacosta's cathedral, at the same time Neil had been combing through the city's records with Matt. Supposedly, it was a record of the very first Journey of Regeneration that detailed the locations of each of the Seals - an invaluable prospect for their own journey. Governor-General Dorr had happy enough to welcome Matt back and meet his companions when they went to ask for the book from him, but things had nearly turned south when they claimed that Colette was the Chosen. Only by revealing her wings (entirely on accident) was she able to convince them of the truth. While Matt was grateful that it had not come to violence, he had a sinking feeling that this new development had plenty of its own trouble in store for them.

Lloyd's brow creased as his frown deepened. "Wait a minute. You said something about the Chosen coming here already. What's going on?"

Dorr was at a loss, so Neil spoke up. "We had received information that the Chosen's group was coming this way, so we naturally thought that they were them."

"And you say you handed over this invaluable book to a random person claiming to be 'The Chosen'?" Raine asked with disgust. "Unbelievable."

The conversation spiraled downward from there until everyone concluded that the governor-general could no longer help them, and the party had little choice but to pursue the impostors - the same group, they realized, whose potion they had run afoul of on their arrival - across the countryside.

They set out as the sun crawled westward from its pinnacle in the sky toward its bed in the ocean. Genis looked back regretfully, not because of his harsh words to the governor-general, but because of the school they were leaving behind. Lloyd did not understand his fascination with it, but he understood the conflict apparent in his demeanor.

"Come on, Genis," he said quietly. "We'll come back, and you'll be the smartest student in the school."

The elf sighed. "I know now isn't the time to be thinking about it, but I was really looking forward to seeing it. I guess that wasn't enough..." With that he turned away and followed after the others.

Matt turned to watch the two catch up with them as he walked; he held the bill in his hand and wore the quarterstaff strapped to his back. He had thought about selling it, but the others had convinced him to keep it, at least for now, in case they had a use for it. "The way you talk about that school makes me sorry I didn't see it," he commented.

Genis shrugged. "Ah, I wouldn't worry about it, really. You had your own things to do, and like Lloyd said, we can come back another time."

"That reminds me," Matt realized. "What happened back there that made you decide we shouldn't split up?" he asked for all to hear.

Lloyd blinked. "Oh, right. Well, after Genis and I looked around the school for a bit, we went down to the big pier off the town square to see the big steam ship." He glanced over his shoulder at the city behind them. "The assassin was there."

Matt stopped for a solid three seconds while he processed this; he could hear his own heartbeat in that moment. "Wawawait. She was  _there?_  How did she get across the ocean?!"

"We have another problem," Kratos interjected from the front; he did not so much as look at them. "We encountered Desians from the eastern ranch at the general store."

"Desians? In town in broad daylight?" Matt was more confused than frightened at this. "You guys talk about them like they... can't really do that. I'd think they'd cause an uproar or panic if people saw them."

Raine sighed. "Their presence here is a fact of life for the people of Palmacosta. The Desians are a threat that ordinary people cannot hope to fight, so they do their best to weather them."

"But they also have hope that their leader and the Palmacostan army will protect them when things go wrong!" Colette chimed in.

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, if it weren't for Dorr, they'd probably-" He cut himself off, wide-eyed, and tried to suppress a bout of laughter.

Genis tilted his head at his friend. "What's so funny?"

"Dorr Matt," the teen giggled.

Everyone froze. Genis broke out into a grin and laughed aloud, encouraging Lloyd to cut loose; their mirth spread to Colette and she joined them. Raine and Kratos just groaned.

Matt, meanwhile, bristled and waited for their amusement to fade. Once it was quiet again, he calmly said, "Next one to make that joke is getting decked."

His threat just made the two boys laugh harder.

Kratos finally turned around, an angry glint in his eye. "Enough. We need to make every effort to catch the impostors before they reach Hakonesia Peak. We travel from sunrise to sundown. Let's go."

So they got moving again, cutting across the open wilderness rather than taking the road in an attempt to head off their quarry. The landscape was beautiful, with vast plains of green grass, speckled with wild flowers and interrupted every now and then with a lone tree, or a whole grove, or a farmhouse. However, the scenery did not appear to change much, so Matt quickly got bored of looking at it and his mind began to wander. He did not like the idea of spending the next few nights out in the open again, but with the ninja so close by, he realized no bed in Palmacosta would have felt safe.

* * *

"Hey, wake up."

Matt opened his eyes to see Lloyd crouching over him, his untamed hair blotting out a number of stars still filling the sky. A light breeze and the chirping of crickets filled the air, and he wondered why on earth someone would be awake on a night so clearly meant for sleep.

"Kratos told me to wake you up for training," the teen whispered.

 _Ugh, already?_  Matt sat up and yawned. "Why so early?" he mumbled.

"Sh!" Lloyd hissed, and he pointed to their companions; Colette, Genis, and Raine were all still sleeping soundly. "We leave at sunrise, remember? That means we have to train before sunrise."

"Urgh... right."  _Should have gone to bed sooner..._  Matt thought as he got to his feet and picked up his staff and bill. He had spent some time fiddling with the device he had found in his pocket back at the Ossa Trail. Parts of it clicked and depressed when he pushed them, and one end of the rubbery cord fit into a hole in its side, but he still could not get it to actually do anything. He was beginning to regret spending so much time on it. Regardless, he started heading for the meeting place they had chosen the night before. "Having any second thoughts yet?" he asked Lloyd.

The teen shook his head. "Not a chance. I can give up some sleep if it means I'll be able to help people better than I could before."

 _...That's deeper than I was planning to go this morning._  Fortunately, Matt was awake enough to realize that thought was probably best kept to himself.

They walked on until their camp was hardly visible, to a grove of trees where the grass only grew to ankle height rather than up to their knees. Here, they found Kratos waiting for them, sitting on a fallen log beside a small clearing with his sword laid across his lap. He regarded them with a nod and stood. "What did you bring the staff for?" he asked Matt in a disinterested tone.

"Just in case, I guess."

"You won't be needing it this morning. If you wish to hone your skills with it, do so on your own time." The mercenary turned his attention to Lloyd. "I want you to do strength exercises while I work with Matthew on combat. Then it will be your turn."

Lloyd nodded. "Sounds good to me."  _I'd rather work on my swordsmanship, though..._

Kratos explained and demonstrated the exercises he had picked out for Lloyd. The teen got to work just outside the clearing while the mercenary drilled Matt on his battle stances. Changing stances with a bill turned out to be even more problematic than it had been with the quarterstaff, since switching between his right-handed offensive and defensive stances required the weapon to be completely flipped around.

Matt began in an attacking stance, leading with his left hand and keeping the blade leveled at Kratos, and switched to the defensive stance, with his right hand forward and the bill at an upward angle in front of his body. The weapon's off-centered balance made the transition awkward and slow; he would have been dead in a real fight, and he knew it.

"Try again," the mercenary instructed in his usual deadpan.

Matt complied with a scowl.

This was repeated half a dozen times, and each time Matt tried something different, even lightly tossing his bill into the air and trying to catch it in the correct position. He nearly got it on that one, but he misjudged the weapon's balance and dropped it.

 _Welp, so much for that,_  he thought. He reached down to pick it up, but before he could, Kratos took it, leveling the blade at him in an attack position, much to Matt's surprise. "Ah, hey! It wasn't that bad, was it?!"

"Like this." The mercenary flipped the weapon around with his left hand, adjusting his right-hand grip first and, once it was set, moving his left to the correct place on the pole. As he did this, he shifted his lower body accordingly.

Matt was silent for a beat. He had been trying to make the transition in a single motion; making it in two steps had not occurred to him, and having the solution shown to him embarrassed and irritated him.

Kratos did not seem to notice this; he just relaxed and handed the bill back to Matt. "Always keep one hand on your weapon. Remember," he told him, "the purpose of the offensive stances is to keep your opponents at a distance where you can reach them, but they can't reach you. If they get past your weapon or use ranged attacks, the way you shift to a defensive stance can mean the difference between surviving and dying. Try again."

Matt nodded and tried to imitate the motion Kratos had made. "Question," he said in between attempts. "How do you know how to use pole weapons when you do all your fighting with a sword?"

He folded his arms. "I've worked with enough spearmen over the years to know correct techniques and battle theory. My skill with such weapons has just never been as well-developed as my skill with swords." He paused. "In truth, polearms were originally intended for use in formations in large-scale battles. They are more difficult to fight with in martial combat than blades."

 _Wait, what?_  "...Then why'd you pick them out for me?"

"The greater range of pole weapons gives them an inherent advantage over swords," Kratos answered. "While it is easier to learn how to use a sword, this way gives you a better chance of survival in the long run."

"That won't do him much good if he has to fight for his life tomorrow," Lloyd interjected as he planked.

Kratos gave him a mild glare. "Which is why I've told him to stay out of battles whenever possible." He returned his attention to Matt. "Now, I'm going to advance past your guard. Do whatever you need to in order to stop my sword from touching you."

By the time Matt figured out exactly what Kratos wanted him to do, it was over; cold metal slid across his neck. "Ah, crap."

The mercenary frowned and withdrew a few paces. "I won't go any slower than that. Again."

This went on for the better part of an hour. Kratos' attacks might have been slow for him, but to Matt, they were just a little too fast. Unlike in a real fight, he could track the mercenary's movements, but Kratos altered his approach on each repetition and bypassed his bill on all but two attempts. On the first, Matt reacted a bit sooner than he had intended and Kratos' blade clacked against the wooden shaft. This success thrilled him, but he could not replicate it that morning. The second one happened at the end of his allotted time, when he was getting frustrated and jumped out of the way of the sword before knocking it away.

"Good enough for now," Kratos suddenly stated. "It's time to switch. Lloyd?"

The teen dropped down from the tree he had been doing crunches in. "Yeah?"

"Please show Matthew the exercises you've been doing. We will begin working on swordsmanship once he's started."

Lloyd grinned and quickly went over the routine with Matt: stretches and warm-ups, push-ups, squats, planks, and hanging crunches. As the list grew, Matt's heart sank; he had not gotten this kind of exercise since before joining the group...  _Wow... Was it really just a week ago?_  In any case, the first stretch he tried to do brought home just how out-of-shape he was; he could barely reach his ankles without bending his knees.

The sound of scraping metal rang out. "How's that?!"

Matt looked up while he stretched to see Lloyd standing across the clearing from Kratos, swords drawn.

"You're wide open," came the reply.

Lloyd flinched in disbelief. "What?! How?"

Kratos gestured to the teen's blades with his own sword. "Fighting with two swords deviates from the way in which swords were originally intended to be used. The difficulty increases your vulnerability."

"That's weird." Lloyd wrinkled his forehead in thought. "If one sword has a power of one hundred, then using two will make it two hundred, right?"

Matt paused mid-stretch.  _What the frick?_

Kratos' eyes actually widened a little. "Are you telling me that's the reason you chose to fight with two swords?"

"Yeah," Lloyd answered, as if it should have been obvious.

Matt became acutely aware of the crickets chirping in the silence that followed.

Lloyd shifted uncomfortably under Kratos' gaze. "Wh-what? Why do you look at me with pity?!"

The mercenary lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry."

The humor in the exchange got to Matt, and there was a loud snickering sound as he tried to stifle a laugh.

Kratos shot him a glare. "You would do well to focus on your own task."

Matt's laughter died instantly, even if his mirth did not. "Yessir," he answered, and continued with his stretches. Once he had finished them, he moved on to pushups.

 _One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven... Eight... Nine..._   _Ten... E...leven... Jeesh, this shouldn't be that hard... Twelve..._  Matt's elbows buckled as he went down on the thirteenth repetition, and with a grunt he fell flat with his hands under his shoulders.  _Ugh! ...Well, so much for this._   _Might as well go on to planking._

Despite Kratos'... "advice," however, he caught himself watching the two swordsmen spar while he went through the exercises. It kept him from thinking about how he would really rather not have been working out at that moment, and he figured he might learn something from them. As their training went on, however, he steadily became filled with a sense of awe. Kratos was clearly in an entirely different league from Lloyd and repeatedly knocked him down, but Lloyd actually managed to put up a fight, blocking several of Kratos' strikes and landing a few of his own. They moved too quickly for him to see everything they did, but what he did see was a spectacle, no, a thrilling display of speed and power and agility and skill. Then they started using their techs, and he had to tear his eyes away to continue his workout.

_What will I need to do in order to fight like that? Training and practice, definitely, but the rest... Does it all really come from Exspheres? But Kratos said I need to get stronger on my own before he'd let me use one... Alright, old man. I'll do it._

With that, Matt finished planking, got up from the ground, and pulled himself onto a tree branch to do crunches.

* * *

The day that followed and the four that came after were much the same and, in the travelers' minds, unremarkable. Kratos, Lloyd, and Matt trained together before sunrise each morning, and the group continued their journey to Hakonesia Peak, stopping only to set up camp each night. Simple lunches were prepared and eaten as they walked, and Matt's body was becoming conditioned to needing relief only in the mornings and evenings, so they truly did walk almost the entire time the sun was out.

The only break in this routine came in the late afternoon of their second day out of Palmacosta, when they arrived at the region's House of Salvation. Colette had spotted it hours before they actually reached it, but the others had taken longer. Even if she hadn't been able to hear the hushed debate between Raine and Kratos when it came into their view, she would have guessed what it was about.

"Are we going to stay here tonight?" she asked her teacher once she finished speaking with one of the other guests.

"That seems to be the plan," Raine said somewhat glumly. "The impostors apparently left here yesterday morning. At the speed they're going, we would all need wings in order to catch them before they reach Hakonesia Peak."

"Those  _jerks!_ " Genis pouted. "They can't get away with pretending to be Colette and us!"

"If they do intend to sell the book once they reach the mountain," Kratos said coolly, "catching up to them will do us no good. We'll see if we can track it down when we get there. We should still travel quickly, but resting for the remainder of today should do no harm."

"All right!" Lloyd blurted out, to everyone's surprise. He glanced around, an embarrassed grin plastered onto his face. "Uh... I'm sure Matt's happy to hear that, right? ... Matt?"

He looked around. Matt was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm pretty sure he went inside already," said Genis.

As a matter of fact, Matt had entered the House as soon as he had figured out they were stopping for the day. Now, he wandered the lower floor, consisting of an entryway and a large, round, open room with rows of wooden benches set before an altar, a desk and chair nestled against one side, and a staircase leading to the upper floor. Impressive paintings and tapestries filled sections of the wall, separated by square columns with small alcoves cut into them. Each alcove held a small statuette, dusty book, faded manuscript, or some other artifact which apparently was of some significance to the Church of Martel, but Matt did not know what their value was. However, while each individual aspect of the House of Salvation was meaningless to him, the whole of it stirred something in his mind. It was... familiar, somehow.

At the same time it felt deeply, fundamentally  _wrong_.

_Have I been to one of these places before? Did... something bad happen to me here? It's almost like I... had a bad dream or something about this place..._

He was so lost in his thoughts that he did not notice her until she was almost in reach of his bill, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

The assassin was kneeling before the altar.

"...lla will suffer," he heard her murmur. "Please, help me save everyone."

Heart pounding, Matt took a step backward, never taking his eyes off the ninja. He tried his best to be silent, but the throbbing in his ears made it hard to tell how he was doing, which only made him more nervous.

Another step...

Another...

And another...

_CRRRREAK_

Both of them practically jumped out of their skins as Matt's foot kicked one of the benches behind him and made it scrape across the wooden floor.

"Aah!"

"AAAH!"

" _AAAAHHH!_ "

Matt whirled around to make a mad dash for the door, but skidded to a stop when it swung open and Lloyd peered inside.

The teen looked relieved to see him. "Oh, good, you're here-" he began as he stepped in. He fell silent when he noticed the assassin standing by the altar, cards drawn and a wild look on her face.

Even as the rest of the party entered the room, she collected herself. "This meeting shall be your end! I shall defeat you right here, and now!"

Lloyd crossed his arms and looked at her skeptically. "This is a place of prayer," he answered quietly. "Let's not start that here."

Kratos blinked and looked at the teen, then nodded and returned his attention to the ninja.

"O...Okay," she stammered sheepishly, and put her cards away.

Lloyd relaxed a bit, and even gave a small smile. "My name's Lloyd! What's yours?"

Matt gawked at him.  _Are you-... Are you_ serious _right now?!_  he yelled inwardly.

The ninja wrinkled her forehead. "What?..."

"Lloyd?"  _What's he thinking?_  Genis wondered.

The Chosen, however, was only encouraged. "Ah, I'm Colette," she said softly but happily. "I'm still inexperienced as a Chosen, but I promise I'll do my best and regenerate the world."

This only served to confuse and anger the assassin. "I never asked you your names!" she spat.

Colette's smile faded and she looked at her feet. "Oh, you're right. I'm sorry."

"I... I'm trying to kill you!"

"I know. But if we just talk, I'm sure we can come to an understanding."

Matt actually slapped his forehead.  _This is going nowhere..._

"Are you listening to me?!"

"I'm listening. But, um... Ms. Assassin..."

The ninja finally lost her temper. "It's Sheena!" she shouted. "Sheena Fujibayashi!"

 _!... What...?_  Matt slowly looked back up.  _Sheena?_

His mind flashed back to the dream he had had on the boat to Palmacosta.

* * *

_"Can I come with you?"_

_"Oh! Sure! Let's Go! My name's Matt."_

_"I'm Sheena."_

* * *

"You OK, Matt?"

"Huh?"

He snapped out of his stupor to find Lloyd grasping his shoulder and giving him a concerned look. As he glanced around, the others turned to see him. The ninja had vanished.

He shook his head and put his hand on it. "Yeah. I'm OK, I just... spaced out again."

"Did she attack you?!" Genis demanded.

"Huh? Oh. No, I... found her praying. She didn't know I was there, so I started leaving, but we... kinda scared each other."

"Interesting..." Raine said pensively. "Either she did not know we were coming this way, or she just did not expect us at this time."

Kratos folded his arms. "In any case, given her demeanor, it should still be safe to stay the night... In fact, she may attack in our sleep if we stay out in the open. We'll just have to leave the road and take to the wilderness tomorrow..."

Matt's thoughts drifted away from the conversation and back to the newest of his growing list of mysteries.

_Sheena... I dreamed that... How?_

* * *

"Okay, okay, so you won't kill them there. Will you do it after they leave?"

"I could try, but... they're strong. Most of them have Exspheres. I... don't think I can beat them at their full strength. And that one stays up all night, so I can't catch them sleeping..."

"So what are you gonna do? There's gotta be something!"

"... I can try again when they've been weakened. After they've had a hard fight, before they have the chance to recover... Ah. The Seal Guardians. I'll ambush them in their moment of hard-won victory."

"That's a great idea, Sheena! I hope they get to the next Seal soon, so we can go home."

"Don't worry, Corrine. Nothing will stop me this time."


	10. Too Much, Too Soon

Lloyd blinked when he saw Matt's face in the light. "Wow. That beard was making you look older. How old are you, anyway?"

Matt chuckled and reflexively touched his cheek where his beard had been. "Twenty-one."

"Huh. I wouldn't have guessed that yesterday, but now you look even younger than that!"

"Ha! You're one to talk, babyface."

"Wait- what?"

"Mister I'm-seventeen-and-can't-grow-a-beard-to-save-my-life. Not even a patchy one. Seriously, the entire front of your head is completely bald."

The teen saw Matt's grin, and he laughed, too. "You dork."

"We should try to avoid waking any of the other guests inside," Kratos interrupted in a lower voice.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir."

The sun had risen, and the three were walking back to the House of Salvation from their morning training session out in the fields. Kratos had instructed them to meet at the usual early time, but everyone had gone to bed somewhat earlier the night before, so Matt and Lloyd were both in better spirits than they had been on previous mornings. Kratos appeared to be the same as ever.

At the door of the house, Matt suddenly stopped short.

Kratos looked over his shoulder at him. "Is something the matter?"

"Huh?" Lloyd turned to see Matt staring blankly at the entryway. "Hey, come on! We gotta get the others up for breakfast. I'm hungry!"

For a few seconds more, Matt did not respond. Then his gaze snapped back down to the two swordsmen. "You know what we should do?" he asked. "We should eat breakfast outside!"

The teen tilted his head at him. "But... don't we do that every day?"

"Well, yeah, but... I guess I've gotten used to it. And it's a beautiful morning out."

Lloyd's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Kratos just shrugged. "Stay out here if you wish," he said placidly. "We'll see what the others decide."

Once they had gone inside, Matt sighed and let his shoulders sag, and he walked around the building to sit beside Noishe curled up against the wall. He still did not understand the feeling of twisted nostalgia the House of Salvation gave him, but he did not like it, nor was he eager to reveal it to his companions.  _If they didn't get offended,_  he thought,  _they'd tell me to just suck it up... Jeesh, I wish I knew where it was coming from._

An idea came to him:  _The answer lies in your past and in your surroundings._

He actually sat up and looked around expecting to see someone else nearby.  _For crying out loud, if I'm gonna hear from you, tell me something useful and straightforward!_

_I have before - every single time prior to this, in fact._

Matt hunched over and scratched at his head. These thoughts did not feel like his own, but they "spoke" in his voice.  _OK, is this coming from me or not?_

_..._

_... Oh, come on! You tell me something cryptic and leave me hanging? Ugh. Between the whole House of Salvation thing and somehow dreaming Sheena's name before I even knew it... I didn't need this. Crap, I've gotta be losing my mind._

Noishe lifted his head and turned to face him; one of his ears brushed over Matt's head as he did. The man looked up at him, and his frustration subsided. "Bet you don't have these problems. Can... whatever-animal-you-are even get amnesia, or hear voices in your head?"

He reached up to give Noishe's head a scratch, and the animal began thumping his fluffy tail against the ground. He looked out at the surrounding landscape; ulterior motives aside, he had been right. It  _was_  a beautiful morning, with a blue sky full of gigantic rolling clouds, rays of light from the sun on the horizon bathing them in a warm glow, and a gentle breeze sending ripples through the grass and stirring the branches of the few trees on the plain. As he sat and took it all in, his mind quieted and his mood improved.

He was still sitting there when Lloyd came looking for him, and he was whistling some tune to himself.

"Hey," the teen said, "everyone's waiting for us."

Unlike previous times his companions had approached him while he was distracted, Matt was not startled by Lloyd's presence. The sound served to draw him out of his reverie and back to conscious thought, and he rose to his feet. "Great. What are we doing?"

"Huh? We're having breakfast out here, like you suggested."

"What?" Matt blinked. "Oh, right! Well, let's go, then!"

At the word "breakfast," Noishe had also stood up, and they all went to rejoin the others.

"So what was that song you were whistling?" Lloyd asked nonchalantly. "I don't think I'd ever heard it before."

Matt gave him a funny look. "Whistling? I wasn't whistling, was I?"

"Well, yeah, you were. I was right there; I heard you."

"I... didn't realize I was whistling."

"Really?" A goofy grin broke out on Lloyd's face. "That's kind of weird."

"Gee,  _thanks_."

"But it's also cool! You must be really good at it if you can whistle without thinking."

Matt processed this for a beat, and he shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. If only I could do something useful without thinking, right? Like fighting?"

"You're getting better at it!" Lloyd said earnestly. "I saw - you actually landed all four hits of that combo attack, and you blocked nine of Kratos' hits this morning. That's a new record for you!"

"You've been keeping count?"

They were interrupted by Genis' voice as they approached the group, seated in a half-circle around a small cooking fire: "Then... that one that looks like a big ape is..."

"Genis?" Colette cut in.

The elf-boy puffed up his chest indignantly. "No! It's gotta be Kratos!"

"What'd we miss?" Lloyd asked as he sat down beside the Chosen.

Colette flashed a quick smile at him. "We were talking about the impostors and which ones of us they're copying."

Matt took a spot at the end of the arc beside Genis. "There were only four of them, right? They must've missed two of us."

Genis turned and opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly did a double-take. "You shaved the rest of your beard off."

"Yeah." He rubbed his chin where the goatee had been when he first joined the group. "I was gonna leave it, but I couldn't get it even. It was getting kind of scraggly anyway."

"You must have improved considerably," Raine interjected. "I don't recall you needing any gels for that one."

The teenagers all got a giggle from this, and even Kratos gave a small smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I cut myself shaving," Matt pouted. " _Hilarious_."

* * *

"You want me to do  _what?_ "

"Kill that beetle."

Three days after arriving at the House of Salvation, the party had arrived at the foothills of Hakonesia Peak. Just before they reached the path leading up to the pass, they had been set upon by a swarm of five giant ladybugs, of all things, each bigger than a grown man's head. As per Kratos' instructions, Matt had stayed back to give the others room to work and keep himself out of trouble. The bugs gave them some difficulty initially, but the tables turned quickly when Kratos killed his and came to Genis' aid. When there was only one left, however, the mercenary called for them all to stop and back away to let Matt give it a go.

"Are you sure about this?"

"They are dangerous in groups, but alone they are merely a nuisance," Kratos reassured him. "Its attacks are quick but predictable, and it moves slowly otherwise."

"Just hurry up and get it away from me!" Genis shouted as the beetle slammed into his forcefield.

"I believe you can do it, Matt!" Colette cheered. It did not escape him how odd it seemed for her to sound so chipper about fighting.

"Well... OK."  _Here goes nothing._

Matt studied the bug's movements before approaching. He observed that Kratos had not been exaggerating; it was fond of blindingly fast hit-and-run charges, but it always buzzed about at a snail's pace between attacks.

Just as he was mulling over which stance would be best in this fight, the beetle charged the forcefield again, flying into it head-on. The shield flickered once at the contact, but instead of flying away again, the beetle crashed into the ground, flapping its wings feebly.

All internal debate gave way to a single thought:  _Now!_

He took an offensive stance and ran at the dazed bug, intending to run it through on the bill's spike. His aim was a little off, and the weapon glanced off the insect's exoskeleton. Still, it was knocked away and stopped attacking Genis. The elf promptly dropped his forcefield and dashed a short distance away from it.

"Here it comes," Kratos warned him.

Matt nodded without looking away from the giant bug. Its focus was on him now, and it took to the air again and began a slow, drawn-out approach, flying low but still well above his head.

It occurred to him that he could definitely outrun it if he needed to.

_Nah. I'd never hear the end of it._

He switched to a defensive position and tried to loosen up in preparation to move.

"You're letting it take the initiative," Kratos pointed out.

"Oh, right. Should I not?"

"That's for you to decide and learn from. Sometimes you must move first to control the battle; other times, there is reason to let an opponent move first, such as when its attacks expose a weakness."

"Yeah? Like wha-  _whoa!_  Ow!"

Matt tried to jump out of the way as the beetle charged him, the droning of its wings suddenly rising in pitch. He did not move quite far enough, and the bug's carapace clipped his shoulder as it flew past.

Kratos answered his unfinished question: "After these creatures attack, their backs are often to you, and stopping themselves after a charge takes time. That's time you can use to your advantage."

Unfortunately, by the time the mercenary finished speaking, the beetle had turned around as was flying toward Matt again.

"As long as you're defending, you might try blocking its attack rather than dodging this time."

"This is a lot to think about at _once!_ " Matt protested as he was assaulted again. At the work "once," the insect suddenly swooped down at him. Not having enough time to get out of the way, he lifted his bill and lowered his head to shield his face.

Something  _thunked_  against the wooden pole in his hands, the buzzing sound stopped, and there was a thud at his feet.

He looked up warily; the beetle was walking about aimlessly while flapping its wings.

"Now!" Lloyd cried out. "Don't give it a chance to take off again! Use the combo!"

"Ah... right!" Matt frantically tried to recall the defensive-position strikes Kratos had recently taught him for this very purpose. The first stroke was a two-hit strike that hit first with the butt of the weapon, and then with the hook on the bladed end. The beetle's small size forced him to stoop to the ground in order to hit it; he repeated the motion in reverse as he stood back up, cutting at it with the hook and smacking it away with the butt.

When all was said and done, Matt was standing with his bill held over his head after his upward swing, and the beetle was on its back some yards away, flailing its legs and trying to flip itself upright.

Without thinking, he bounded across the intervening distance and ran the bug through; he could feel the bill's sharpened spike plunging into the dirt underneath it. Its legs all flexed in unison one last time before they crumpled inward, and it lay still.

Kratos nodded. "A killing stroke would probably have been better than a combination attack in this case," he stated while giving Lloyd a pointed look. "They leave you open longer, true, but it is always best to end a fight as quickly as possible. Combination attacks tend to be defensive in nature, a stalling tactic best used against more numerous or powerful opponents."

Lloyd lowered his head, irritated at being corrected by the older swordsman for the umpteenth time, but at the same time committing this new information to memory.

The mercenary approached Matt, who had not moved yet, and pulled the bill out of the ground, kicking the dead beetle off as he did. "Still," he continued, "given that this was your first real fight, you did well."

 _... I guess that means Sheena and the witch at Ossa Trail don't count._  "Well, thanks," Matt answered. "I-"

He gagged and covered his mouth and nose with one hand.

"You should clean your weapon before we reach the top of the pass," Kratos suggested. "Let's go, everyone." With that he began the hike up the mountain.

Matt looked down at the bill in his hand; its spike and hook were covered in foul-smelling bug juice.

Colette smiled at him as she passed to follow Kratos. "I knew you could do it!" she said triumphantly, seemingly unfazed by the stench.

"Remember," Raine told him while she followed suit, "if you think you need healing during or after a battle, don't hesitate to ask - unless you value your pride over your life."

_Pride? What do I have to be proud of? One dead bug?_

Lloyd gave him a punch on his shoulder, knocking his hand away from his face. "Nice job! I told you you were getting better!"

"Just don't let it go to your head, OK?" Genis said with a grin.

"Blegh, too late," Matt griped, and he knelt down to wipe the bug guts off his bill on the grass. "It's already gone to my head, and it's gonna make me sick."

* * *

They reached the pass before noon that day. There was little to see where civilization was concerned. The way through the mountain - a narrow path walled in by the mountain on either side - was barred by a gate and armed soldiers; a small guardhouse stood nearby. Only one other building could be seen: a one-story structure that appeared to be someone's house. A handful of people milled about the area, all somewhat worn in appearance after traveling this far, and most expressing discontent or worry about something.

After they had asked around about their impostors and the book they had taken, the party was directed to the house by one of the guards. Raine caught her breath when she stepped inside and her eyes adjusted to the lower lighting. The walls were lined with shelves and display tables, and each one was packed with all manner of ancient artifacts. A few fossils, some rusty weapons, statuettes and figurines, outdated garments and household objects, and most of all, dusty books and scrolls.

She recognized every single item she set her eyes on.

All, that is, except the short, hunched, elderly man with a cane who turned to greet them. The look in his eyes instantly curbed her curiosity.

"If you're looking for road passes," he said in a wizened voice when everyone had entered, "it's a hundred million Gald per person."

Lloyd blanched. "Wha?! What kind of price is that?! That's robbery!"

Koton looked like he might just try to tear the teen's head off. "Silence, boy!" he barked. "I'll have you know, I hate men!"

Lloyd drew back to where Matt was standing. "What's that guy's problem?" he muttered for only him to hear.

"Don't know, but I kinda want to give him another one," Matt grumbled.

"With that attitude, he'd probably be dead by now without those guards outside."

"For sure. That's not a healthy way to talk to guys with swords."

"Hey!" Genis' shout brought their attention back to the conversation. "You're in cahoots with the travel agency!"

Koton turned his wrath on the elf. "Oh, shut up! If you don't have any money, then get out of here!"

Before Lloyd could tell the old man off, Colette spotted the object of their search. Koton glowed with pride (at least they hoped it was pride) as he told her about how he had acquired the Book of Regeneration from the Chosen.

"I'd just about given up on Dorr ever letting go of it. It was very fortunate that the Chosen herself was willing to part with it.

Lloyd couldn't stand it anymore. "Let us have that!" One look from Koton and he relented. "At least just let us look at it for a bit."

"You've got to be kidding!" The man exclaimed, only slightly less annoyed. "Why should I have to show it to you people?!"

"Oh, come on!" Genis blurted. "Colette is the Cho- ow!"

"Stop," Raine said quietly as she lowered her hand. "We'll be the ones treated as impostors."

 _It wouldn't be the first time, would it?_  Matt thought to himself.  _They thought we were impostors at first b_ _ack in Palmacosta. How'd we get out of it again?... Oh, yeah, that._

He tapped Raine on the shoulder with his free hand while she fed Koton some excuse for Colette to be interested in the book. "Wouldn't it be easy enough to prove?" he murmured, hoping his voice was too quiet for the elderly man to hear, or at least understand.

Every eye in the group turned to him. Immediately his ears started burning up and he shrank back, looking at the ground.

Lloyd looked back to Koton. "One second." Then they all left him staring in confusion while they formed a huddle near the door, all speaking in low voices as they conferred.

"I know what you're thinking," Raine stated, exasperated. "We can't go revealing Colette's identity whenever it's convenient."

" _Convenient?_ " Lloyd echoed. "He has the locations of all the seals, and he won't let the Chosen of Mana see it! He's hindering the Journey of Regeneration out of greed!"

"Hm. When you put it that way," Kratos reflected, "his actions appear preposterous. The question, then, is whether we should use force, try to reason with him, appease him, or continue on without the book."

"I say we just take it," Genis said with a scowl. "It didn't belong to the impostors, and it doesn't belong to him!"

Colette folded her hands and looked down at them. "Actually... we don't need the book itself, do we? We just need to read it."

Matthew, relieved that he had not been shot down outright, chimed in again: "Using force would probably cause a bigger scene than Colette showing her wings, right?"

Lloyd nodded. "He might not be quiet about meeting the real Chosen, but he'll definitely call for the guards if we try anything."

"We cannot do that!" Raine insisted. "It's too risky. There are Desian ranches on either side of this mountain, as well as the assassin to worry about!"

"She probably already knows we're here," Kratos pointed out, "and the Desians have no reason to come here."

The professor folded her arms. "It's too important a decision to make lightly. We need to-"

A chorus of raised voices outside made her pause. Everyone looked toward the door.

"Oh,  _now_  what is it?" Koton grumbled.

Lloyd shrugged and made for the door. "We'd better go see what's going on." Turning briefly to the old man, he said politely, "We'll be back."

"Unless you bring that Spiritua Statue, don't bother!"

The group silently agreed to ignore him.

Back outside, a large crowd of people had suddenly gathered in the open space before the gate guarding the pass. Most appeared to be families: beleaguered parents and tired elders trying to keep track of crying, restless children. At first, Raine thought they were completely unarmed, but she spotted a select few with short swords or bows. For the most part, they were poorly supplied, and they all looked afraid.

"Where'd these guys come from?" Matt wondered. "They look kinda like... refugees.

Lloyd approached the group closest to the house, a family of four. "What's going on?" he asked the two adults.

"Oh, you don't know?" the woman asked, keeping one hand each on her son and daughter's shoulders.

Her husband gently pulled her back, closer to him. He looked over the Chosen's party, his eyes lingering on their weapons. "You all would be better off waiting here for a while," he said resignedly. "No matter what, you should stay away from Palmacosta."

"Why? Did something happen?!" Lloyd demanded.

The woman glanced down at her children, her fear for them painfully obvious. "The Desians... they're headed for Palmacosta."

The whole group, sans Matt and Kratos, recoiled. "What?!"

The man nodded. "Word is the leader of the nearby ranch, Magnius, is with them. Dorr and the Palmacostan army should be able to fend them off, but..." he gestured to his family. "It's not safe right now. We're going to stay here until things cool down. If you value your lives, you should hold off on going anywhere for a while."

Raine grimaced.  _That's probably just the opposite of what we're about to do._

* * *

Sure enough, they left Hakonesia Peak the same day they had arrived and made for Palmacosta, as quickly as Matt could keep up with. Even though the constant traveling over the previous two weeks had improved his speed and endurance, he was still the slowest member of the party, to his increasing frustration.

 _Stinking Exspheres,_  he said to himself as he pushed himself onward.  _Let's see_ them _try to keep this pace without them... Ugh, this is so stinking far out of the way. I should be trying to go on to the next town, not backtracking across a continent! Palmacosta has an army - they can handle the Desians themselves. Wouldn't they want civilians out of the way?_

Such thoughts festered in his mind during his waking hours when he was left to himself. It must have been obvious to the others, because after the first night of the return trip, at least one of them was always nearby and trying to make conversation with him. Sometimes it helped; sometimes it did not.

On one such occasion, Raine took the job upon herself and stubbornly tried for hours on end to keep him from brooding. Given her prior treatment of him, Matt found this odd, but he shrugged it off. Still, the situation ranged from awkward conversation to awkward silence for hours on end until the group stopped for the night.

"Hmm... I've never heard of a bird like that before," she concluded after Matt described Sam for her.

He shrugged in response as he knelt and dug through his bag for his journal. "Well, I don't know what to tell you. That's what I remember."

"Perhaps you came from wherever it is they can be found," she suggested, half to herself.

"Eh, maybe. But it's not enough for a lead. There aren't any others of Noishe's kind around Iselia, are there?"

The creature perked up his ears at the mention of his name before laying his head on his forepaws again.

Raine nodded. "No, there aren't."

"Thought not." Taking his journal and pencil, Matt sat down where he was and quickly read over his previous entry before beginning a new one.

May 19

More of the same today - training in the morning, walking all day.

I did better, I think. I can do the exercises longer before I need to stop for a break. I think Kratos might be pulling more stops when we spar. I felt like I did terribly, but he says I'm actually learning quickly. And I think I'm getting faster - I actually kept pace with Genis most of the day. Still, I'm tired of all this walking. One way or another, I'm glad we'll be getting to Palmacosta tomorrow. Even if it's going to be that much longer before I can keep looking for my family, at least we'll be sleeping in a place with beds and pillows that isn't the House of Salvation.

The others

Matt suddenly paused and looked up. Raine was still standing over him, watching him closely.

He sighed and closed the book on one of his fingers, so he could find his place again. "So was today just your unlucky day?"

She blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"You still don't trust me, yet here you are, trying to make small talk." He thought for a moment. "You don't seem like one for small talk to begin with."

The elf nodded. "I'm not, and I don't. However, you  _are_  a part of our group, and your attitude has an impact on the others."

"Huh?"

She sat down and laid her staff beside her. "I know you'd rather not be going this way, and there's nothing we can do to help it right now. Since you will not keep your own attitude about it in check, our only recourse is to try to keep your mind off of it. If you spend all your time dissatisfied and upset, it will spread to the rest of us. None of us want that, and the only other choice would be to isolate you, which would only make the problem worse."

Matt looked down at his feet, feeling like he had been punched in the abdomen. "Raine, I... didn't realize-"

"I understand that," she interrupted.

He looked up at her again; her gaze was stoic, but she appeared relaxed and, thus, less hostile than he was accustomed to.

"Now that you know," she continued, "please try to keep your emotions in check." She gestured to his journal. "By your own account, you have experience making the most out of something less than ideal."

Matt narrowed his eyes and returned to his writing. "Yeah, maybe try  _not_  bringing that up."

are getting nervous, and that - well, I guess it should make me worried. They're pretty freaking powerful compared to everyone else who's attacked us, enough to end fights against other people non-lethally every time. What is it about these Desians that makes them so scary? Every time I've asked, it's been something about them being half-elves with human ranches, but I don't know what any of that means. I guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow and see for myself - if they let me anywhere near where the fighting is happening, if any.

Once again, he glanced up from the page.

Raine was still sitting there, but she had put on reading glasses and opened two of her own books - one some sort of manuscript, the other a blank booklet she wrote notes in.

_At least she's not staring._ _Yay, progress._

An idea came to him out of the blue. "You mentioned Magitechnology before," he stated.

The professor lowered her spectacles and looked at him. "I did?"

"Yeah, you did." He did not give her time to ask when. "Do you know how to use it?"

She sighed. "I have some experience with it. Why do you ask?"

Matt nodded and stretched out his legs to reach into his pocket. "I've had this since I joined you guys. I don't know what it is or what it does." He drew out the small device and rubbery cord he had been puzzling over and held it out for the elf to see.

Somewhat reluctantly, Raine set aside her books and pencil and took the thing from him.

A sudden, disturbing change came over her. Her eyes widened, her breath quickened, the corners of her mouth slowly formed a wide grin, and her movements became erratic as she turned it over in her hands.

"It's made of polycarbonate!" she gasped.

Matt tilted his head. "Made of poly-what?"

"These markings! They're completely level with its surface! And these panels - it's made up of individual pieces that fit together perfectly! There's no apparent way to take it apart without destroying it...  _Ah!_  These sections depress! Not enough to do anything mechanically... Yes! It  _must_  be Magitechnology! Let's see. This slot here -  _yes,_  the metallic end of the cord fits perfectly! What about this one... It's far too small and narrow for just anything to be inserted. Do you have any other pieces that might fit?"

She finally stopped talking to wait for an answer. When none came, she looked up to see that Matt was a few feet further away than he had been a moment before.

"... No," he said uncertainly. "Those are the only things I found. Um... please don't break it."

"How else am I to learn its secrets?" Raine demanded indignantly.

"I don't know, but... if you break it, what if you can't put it back together?"

The change she had gone through reversed, and she became more somber. "Hmm. Yes, that is true... Very well. Since it's not mine to destroy, I will not do so."

"Thanks."  _Jeesh, it's like talking to two different people..._  With that, he returned to his writing.

Anyway, while I'm talking about fighting, Kratos had me do more of it today. This time it was against a "grasshopper" about the same size as Noishe. Seriously, if anything they look like big, evil mantises. At any rate, that one actually got me a few times, and Kratos had me eat gels during the battle instead of afterward. I don't think I'll ever get used to the feeling of physical injuries getting healed like that... It's like it's forcing my body to heal at an accelerated rate, and being healed ultimately feels good, but the process feels... weird. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure why they give me gels only and don't use magic. Oh well. I guess it doesn't matter.

Matt was vaguely aware of Genis sitting beside him as he finished for the night.

I'm letting Raine study my mystery pocket machine for a while. That's all for now. Except... I think Raine is coming around. But she's also crazy sometimes. I'll try to write here again tomorrow.

A loose piece of paper appeared over the page.

"Hm?" He looked up. Genis made sure he had eye contact with him before giving a pointed glance to the paper. He followed the stare and read the boy's neat, even handwriting.

_What did you give Raine?_

Matt looked at Genis again. He got no response except a pointing finger to the blank space below the writing. He shrugged and wrote his answer.

I'm not sure. I've had it in my pocket the whole time. I thought she might know what it is. And I didn't GIVE it to her, I'm just letting her look at it for a while.

The elf took the page back and wrote more under this line. The conversation continued on in this manner.

_It must be something really old or really special if it got her into Ruin Mode._

Ruin Mode? You mean she gets like that regularly?

_ Yeah, but usually only when there are ruins. A few other things have also activated it, though. I feel bad for you - you had to see it for the first time alone. _

It's OK now. I know what to expect next time.

_ Sorry, but that won't save  you. _

Matt looked up at Genis at this last line. He was grinning mischievously.

* * *

The next morning was not like previous mornings. Kratos did not wake either of his pupils for training, but let them sleep until sunrise with the others. Their breakfast was hushed and hurried, and they left for the city as quickly as they could. They walked in silence across the plains toward the sea for hours until they reached the city.

It was as if they had entered a dream version of Palmacosta: seemingly abandoned, with the sound of distant voices echoing off the tall buildings.

"Where is everyone?" Matt wondered, warily looking all around with both hands on his bill.

"Many of the residents fled," Kratos reminded him. "The rest must have been rounded up and taken elsewhere."

Colette held back a sigh.  _Is my hearing really that much better?_  "Maybe we should check the city square," she prodded.

The mercenary nodded and silently led the way down the main street. The echoing voices steadily grew louder and more distinct as they went until they came to the arched stone bridge that connected the main square to the rest of town. Lloyd broke out into a sprint and ran ahead before Kratos could stop him.

What he saw sickened him.

The majority of the city's civilians were scattered around a wooden gallows that had been built in the center of the square. A bound and gagged woman stood upon it with the noose around her neck. On either side of her, surrounding the feet of the gallows, and standing atop some of the buildings were people clad in purple, all armed with various weapons and wearing helmets that hid their eyes. All except for the fourth person standing on the gallows: a muscle-bound man with a scarred face and red dreadlocks tied into a ponytail, with black pants, pointed boots, and a purple vest.

The teen swore as the others caught up to him. "Why isn't the city militia doing anything to stop this?"

A man standing nearby overheard him. "Most of them are out on training exercises right now," he answered in a pained tone.

"The Desians must have waited for this opportunity," Genis fumed. "Slimy jerks!"

Matt blinked. " _Those_  are Desians? They look like regular people to me."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a commotion broke out in the crowd. The burly man on the gallows jumped down ten feet to the ground, and the people in his path - Desian and civilian alike - gave him a wide berth, until he stood before a little boy Matt had seen roaming the square the last time he had been there.

A rock fell from the child's hand and clattered against the paving stones.

Then the man drew back his arm and brought his fist down on the boy's head.

Matt's bill fell to the ground even as the boy did.

" _No!_ " Lloyd cried. Again, before anyone could stop him, he rushed forward a few paces, whipped out a sword, and sent a Demon Fang at the Desian. The shockwave connected, knocking him back and firmly drawing the attention of everyone in the square.

Raine got over her shock first. "Lloyd, stop!" she shouted, and she ran to the red-clad teen. After a brief hesitation, Colette and Genis followed her.

Matt did not really notice any of this; he stood rooted to the bridge, unable to tear his gaze away from the boy lying in the street. All else in his sight was dark and blurry. "Did that guy just... kill that kid?"

"I don't know, but that may be the case."

"No, that can't be... This is just a bad dream, isn't it?"

"Matthew?"

"Oh... Oh boy, I'm gonna be sick..."

"Get ahold of yourself!"

A firm shake by the shoulders brought him back to his senses. His eyes cleared somewhat and he found himself looking Kratos in the eye.

"You need to flee or you need to fight," the mercenary said sternly. "You may need to do both. Staying where you are is not an option." He put the bill back into Matt's hands.

The feel of the weapon in his hands improved his state of mind further, somehow. His vision fully returned to normal, and his raw horror was muted, leaving something of a void in its place.

"Go if you wish. If you want my advice, I believe you'll be safer with us in battle than alone on the run. Defend yourself as best you can, and we'll get you through alive. Understood?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah."

It was not true.

Kratos released his hold on him. "Good. Let's go."

They ran to rejoin the group. Matt stopped behind Genis, who was standing behind the others; Kratos ran past them and slashed Magnius across the chest with his sword while he was distracted by Colette's chakram. The Desian fell to one knee, clutching at the wound, while the mercenary sheathed his sword and stepped back instead of following up the attack.

Matt saw of all this, and he heard the hurried discussion on both sides, but the words fell flat on his ears. All conscious thought had ceased, leaving him acutely aware of his surroundings. He simply reacted to them.

He hung back when the battle started, and Lloyd and Kratos rushed the Desians soldiers head-on.

He gave Colette room to throw her rings and kept his distance while Raine and Genis cast their magic.

He noticed when one of the Desians tried to flank their group.

The memory of the little boy collapsing to the ground ran through his mind, and he leveled his bill at the soldier in an attacking stance.

He saw the Desian hesitate just before he swung his whip, and heard him utter the words, "What the devil?"

Then he buried the metal spike in his bare throat.

Matt had seen monsters die bloody deaths on his journey, but even in his current state, the sight of this half-elf's blood spewing from the wound and onto his clothes jarred him.

Then the body fell, the helmet rolled off his head, and he could see his enemy's face.

Aside from a pair of pointed ears, he looked completely human. His expression was frozen in a twisted mix of confusion and fear; his green eyes were open wide, staring at Matt in panicked accusation.

All of Matt's earlier revulsion returned, multiplied tenfold, and he recoiled. A bit of flesh caught on the bill's hook was ripped out. The length of the spike gleamed and dripped ruby red.

He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He couldn't tear his eyes away from those of the newly-made corpse. His mind had been thrown into chaos, a storm of emotion even losing his memory could not have duplicated. In this catatonic state, only three words would come to him, and each time they repeated, they echoed in his mind, growing steadily louder and threatening to completely and utterly break him.

_I killed him._


	11. AWOL

The salty sea breeze of Palmacosta drifted through the open window, ruffling Lloyd's hair and cooling him down.

He was lying awake in his bed at the Skipper's Haven inn, thinking about the events of the previous day. After Magnius had had himself spirited out of the city, they had just managed to drive the remaining Desians out. To his frustration, even with the training Kratos had been giving him, the mercenary still had to rescue him at one point when he had nearly been overwhelmed. Lloyd, in turn, had had to rush to Matt's defense when the latter suddenly went catatonic. He had not been able to move him to safety, so he was forced to keep their enemies from reaching him. He may not have been able to do it without Genis supporting him with his magic.

The teen rolled from his back to his side. They had managed to lead Matt away from the scene and to the inn in the aftermath of the battle. They had defeated every Desian Magnius had left behind, at the cost of two casualties: the boy Magnius had attacked and a civillian man he had murdered before their arrival.  _At least Cacao and Chocolat are alright..._

Matt, however, had remained unresponsive until the evening, after a few hours of them taking shifts talking to him, trying to coax him back to reality out of whatever realm his mind had retreated to. Gradually, he had recovered, progressing from oblivious silence to incomprehensible babbling to snippets of conversation.

Lloyd could remember the first time he had killed a person. It had been two years prior, when he and Colette had decided to sneak away from the village to his dad's house, and a strange man had appeared and tried to take her. Lloyd had gotten hurt, but he fought back and, with the help of his Exsphere, felled the kidnapper. What he had done had not sunk in until his outrage had died down, and it took the combined efforts of Dirk and Colette to get him through the trauma - not that she had been in any better shape. No one else knew anything of this, even Genis.

With this in mind, the teen found Matt's condition to be understandable. Killing a Desian for the first time, with a single hit, and emerging physically unscathed, however, raised questions in his mind that had kept him up late and woken him up early. Had the amnesiac been a fighter before losing his memory? A mercenary? Perhaps even an assassin? Had he staged the whole thing? Even if Lloyd did not actually suspect any of these things, he could not keep the ideas from floating around in his head. After all, Desians were Exsphere-enhanced opponents. A regular person could not win against them so easily.

Could they?

_I wonder if Kratos has thought of any of that. I should ask him after we train... Well, I guess I could do it now, before we start. No one else is awake yet, and I'd feel bad if someone overheard us._

With that, Lloyd got up out of bed and looked out the window at the sky to confirm that it was getting close to time to meet the mercenary outside. He put on his coat and strapped on his swords as quietly as he could to avoid waking Genis. Slipping out of their room and into the hallway, he opened the door to the adjacent room and poked his head inside. Kratos' bed was empty; no surprise there. Matt, however, was gone as well.

_Huh? Did they start without me?... Ugh, that makes me sick!_

The young swordsman may have been impulsive, but he had enough self-awareness to keep himself from stomping the whole way out of the inn and to the street outside. He cut loose a little on the road to the main square, the sound of his boots on the cobblestones echoing softly off the surrounding buildings. Apart from that, the city was silent.

There was Kratos, standing in the center of the square with his shield already on his arm. Matt was nowhere to be seen.

The mercenary looked at Lloyd inquisitively as he approached. "Why did you not bring Matthew with you?" he asked when he was close enough.

"What? I thought he was with you. He wasn't in bed when I went to get him."

Kratos somehow managed to fold his arms with his shield equipped. "Really? That's odd... He must have gone for a walk. Small matter. It's your turn to go first, anyway." He drew his sword. "Shall we begin?"

Lloyd pushed aside his uncertainty concerning the situation and drew his own blades, and he charged his...

What was Kratos to him, anyway? A master? No, he could never think of him like that. Maybe a mentor? ...Yes, he could stomach giving him that title.

The sound of their clash rang out into the early morning. Since the buildings there were for working and not for living in, they had decided that they could train here with minimal risk of waking anyone. They could have met in the fields outside the city, but fighting on terrain other than dirt and grass had thrown Lloyd off the day before, and Kratos made up his mind that training in different environments was necessary.

Lloyd seized the opportunity when he and the mercenary separated after a flurry of strikes, parries, and blocks. "I wanna ask you something," he said with his swords raised, trying to hide his heavy breathing.

"Does it relate to your progress?"

The teen relaxed a little and lowered his blades. "Not exactly. Well... no, not at all. It's about Matt - he didn't get so much as a scratch yesterday, and he killed that Desian with just one hit. But he only started fighting with us this week, and he doesn't have an Exsphere. Doesn't that sound weird to you?"

Without warning, Kratos attacked again, swinging his sword in a backhanded arc. Lloyd only just reacted in time to block, but the sheer force of the blow knocked him off-balance, and he fell over backward onto the pavement. He bit back a curse as his instructor stood over him, sword leveled at his throat.

"I take it you did not actually see what happened," the mercenary remarked, and he sheathed his sword to offer Lloyd a helping hand up.

After a moment's consideration, the student accepted the gesture and was pulled to his feet. "Well, no. Did you?"

"That Desian was going to attack Matthew," Kratos explained. "He hesitated, and he was destroyed by an amateur he could have beaten one-handed."

Lloyd tilted his head. "He hesitated? Why?"

"I don't know, but if you count Matthew as a friend, you should be glad he did." Kratos drew his sword again and stepped back a few paces. "Regardless, you should learn from his mistake."

None of this lesson was lost on Lloyd, but the teen was not ready to get back to training just yet, and he put his own swords away for the moment. "But it doesn't make any sense!" he protested. "Desians kill anyone who gets in their way, and they hate humans-"

"Then there are two possible explanations," Kratos asserted impatiently. "Matthew may be an ally of the Desians, and they sacrificed the one he killed to cement his position in our group."

The memory of Matt's mental breakdown ran through Lloyd's head, and he quickly ruled out that option.

"Either that," Kratos continued, "or the Desian was distracted by something and left himself open by accident."

"Distracted by wha-"

"It could have been any number of things. Maybe it was the sight of Matthew's strange clothing, or maybe he witnessed us killing one of his friends." Kratos gestured to the swords at Lloyd's hips with his own weapon. "If you really wish to worry about this, do so when you are not training. You're wasting our time."

That did the trick, and the young swordsman drew his blades once again and engaged the mercenary, his thoughts dominated by the desire to best Kratos. If he had thought about it, he would not have been able to explain why. Monsters he had to fight to protect himself and his friends, and Desians he would kill both to protect innocents and to avenge his mother, but Kratos... he had something to prove to him. What and why that was, he did not know.

They sparred for the remainder of their training session; whenever Kratos had advice, an explanation, or a correction for Lloyd, he gave it then and there, be it during a bout or between clashes, and Lloyd made sure he would remember all that was said to think on later. Eventually, when the sky to the east was changing from inky blue to sullen gray, they called an end to that day's training and went back to the inn to see if Matt had returned there instead of meeting them. Peering through the doorway, they could see that Kratos' room was still abandoned.

"We should go look for him," Lloyd suggested, and turned to leave again. "He could get lost in this city."

Kratos did not move. "Wait."

"What?"

"He left his weapon behind."

The teen followed Kratos' pointing finger to the bill standing propped up against the wall beside Matt's bed. A sheet of paper had been hung on it by the hook.

Lloyd shrugged. "Maybe he didn't figure he'd need it here?"

The mercenary did not even look at him, but entered the room and cast about for something. "His bag is missing."

"Huh?" Lloyd stepped inside. Sure enough, all of Matt's things were gone, save the bill.

 _...No, he wouldn't!_  The teen looked again at the abandoned polearm, and then carefully pulled the page off of it. The best-case scenario immediately dawned on him. "He must have remembered where he came from, and he couldn't wait to get home, so he just left a message for us!" he said hopefully, before he even read the words written on the paper.

XXX

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry for leaving you guys like this, but I've made up my mind, and sticking around to talk about it would just make things harder on all of us.

I killed a man today. I can still see the look in his eyes. I can still hear his blood squirting out. I can still feel the bill stabbing his throat in my hands. I know the Desians are bad people. I know the stories you told me. I saw what they did today. But I can't do it again. It took me to a dark place... Killing the bugs and wolves on the way here didn't do anything like that. You guys managed to bring me out of it, and I thank you for that, but if I go back there... I don't know if I'll get out again. And if I stay with you, I'll have to kill, or be killed, or be rescued.

Besides, I'm not getting stronger fast enough. With an Exsphere and enough time, I could get strong enough, but right now I'm just slowing you down. Don't kid yourselves, it does matter. I'm the reason we got to Palmacosta when we did, and not sooner. I'm the reason we were too late to save that kid. I'm not gonna be that reason again. Other people need your time more than I do. I should have just stayed back in Triet and gone with Thomas... but now I think I can make up for it.

Lloyd, thanks for being so encouraging. You've been a good friend - almost like a brother, even. You're stronger than I am, and if you keep it up, I think you can become one of the strongest in the world.

Genis, I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better. You're a bright kid, and you're gonna go places.

Colette, it means a lot that you'd set aside your own problems to make sure someone else is OK. I wish you'd let the others do the same for you... and I think we both know that someone wants to.

Raine, I don't think you need to worry about me anymore. If I was something dangerous, like you suspect, this killing business would probably be easier. You can hold onto that thing I gave you, but if you ever find out what it does, tell me next time we meet, OK? Because I get the idea you all will come to wherever I end up sooner or later.

Kratos, thank you for training me. I'll do my best to remember your lessons, and I'll keep trying to get better at fighting with the staff. The supplies you gave me to carry are in your bag.

Everyone, thank you for letting me travel with you for... wow, it hasn't even been three weeks yet. It feels like longer. But in a good way. I won't forget this time with you guys, barring any future head injury. Good luck on your journey, and I hope we meet again sometime.

-Matthew

XXX

Lloyd finished reading the letter and handed it over to Kratos.  _He left? But where did he go? Where WILL he go? And who will he go with? He won't survive on his own, and he has no way past Hakonesia Peak..._

The teen thought along these lines while the mercenary read the letter, growing increasingly frustrated at Matt's insistence that he had been a burden. His statements about killing, however, he was not sure he could argue with.

Kratos' expression was unreadable as his eyes scanned the writing, and eventually he let the note fall to his side as if it were no more important than a pebble. "If you wish," he told Lloyd, "you may rest until it is time to meet the others for breakfast."

Lloyd was not surprised enough to be infuriated by the mercenary's cold response; he was simply disgusted. "Kratos, shouldn't we try to find him?! He still thinks Simon died, and that it's his fault!"

No emotional reaction. "If he had stayed, he would have found out. Matthew made his choice, and as far as he does not cause us trouble, we shall respect that choice." With that, Kratos went to his bed, set aside his sword belt and shield, and laid down with his back to him. "We are finished training this morning."

Lloyd gave him a scowl that went unnoticed, glanced at the abandoned bill, and picked up the discarded letter as he left the room.

* * *

Soon after Lloyd had returned to bed, the sun crested over the hills to the east and painted the clouds in the sky with brilliant hues of red, orange, yellow, purple, and pink.

A few miles down the road away from Palmacosta, a group of about twenty travelers on pilgrimage stopped to admire the sight and welcome the new day. They had left the city while it was still dark for exactly this purpose; the buildings there tended to spoil the view of the sunrise and, thus, detract from the initial stage of their journey.

"And so a new dawn comes to the world - and to your lives!" Chocolat said to the tour group with a convincing smile on her face. "Let us embark on this journey in quiet introspection."

Mutters of approval rose up from the travelers, most of them surrounding a middle-aged woman in a habit, and they started moving again, taking a leisurely pace as they continued on.

Matt, however, was quiet, and not because he was introspecting. Chocolat had confessed to him that she did not actually believe the Church of Martel's script for the tour, yet she played the part well enough that he would have been fooled otherwise. When he asked her about this later in the day, after the designated time for silence had passed, she smiled and shrugged at him. "I may not believe it, but these people do. Hearing about it and going on this tour makes them feel better about these hard times. I can pretend to believe it for that."

 _That makes sense,_  he thought with a nod.

He had been unable to sleep that night; the memory of the previous day's events had plagued his consciousness. They flooded back to the forefront of his mind whenever his thoughts were idle, so they only way to stave them off was to be actively thinking about something. He had found himself unable to move far from the subject, though, and the day's violence and the late hour had twisted his thoughts so that they were all dark and terrible. One that would haunt him for some time was when he tried to think of his future with the Chosen's party, and all he could see was a horde of helmet-less Desians before him, all staring at him, all with a bloody hole punched in their necks, or their abdomens or chests or, worst of all, their eye sockets.

 _I can't kill again,_  he had realized.  _I can't... and I won't._

Thus, he had decided to leave that very night. No teary goodbyes, no attempts to convince him to stay - just a letter telling them why and thanking them for their help.

The latter portion had really made Matt think about his time with them and all the interactions he had had with them, as well as the ones they had had with each other. He had realized things: subtle indications of underlying connections and tensions he might have only guessed, feelings he himself had not realized he had. Of these things, he had only written about what he thought would be prudent to say, but even then, he felt there was no going back once he had left the letter. Facing them after they had read it would be too awkward.

Having left his goodbye letter, their supplies, and the bill he told himself he would never touch again, he had slipped out of the inn, made possible by the curious but irrelevant absence of Kratos. Through Palmacosta's darkened streets, he had sought out the travel agency. Chocolat had instantly recognized him as being one of the Chosen's companions and, once she heard his story, got permission from her employer to bring him along on the Asgard tour.

Now, as the tour started on its way again, Matt looked back at the city. Its buildings shone in the morning light, as did the sea behind it.

 _So long, guys,_  he thought to himself as the tour group got moving again. _So long, early mornings. Goodbye, Desians, and goodbye She-_

His hand flew to his pocket and felt inside it; it was empty.

"...  _Craaaap!_ "  _Sheena's card. I left it in the drawer back at the inn..._

As he walked, he pulled his journal out of his bag and flipped to his first entry. Below the picture of the All-Divide was a sketch of one of the ninja's magic exploding cards: the one she had left behind after her fight with the Chosen's group. He had drawn it in case something like this happened.

"What's the matter, chief?"

Matt looked up to see another one of the travelers, a weathered man with brown hair who appeared to be about Kratos' age, frowning at him. His worn clothing and bulging backpack made it look like most of his material possessions were on his person; a knife and a coil of rope with metal spheres tied to it hung from his waist.

Matt sighed, resigned. "Nothing, Enzo. I just left something behind." He held the book out to show him the illustration. "A souvenir."

Enzo studied the image for a few seconds. "Never seen anything like it before." He looked at him again. "Should you go back for it?"

"It's not that important," Matt said, closing the book and bagging it again. "It was a reminder. A reminder not to do anything stupid."

The man gave a hearty chuckle at that. "Small matter, then. You don't seem like one who'd need to be reminded. No more than the next man, anyway."

"...Heh. That turned into the most mediocre compliment I've ever heard."

"Anyway, you joined this tour pretty late. Is there a story there?"

Matt paused. "Well, yeah, but... it's turning into a bit of a long one. The short version is that I was in the wrong place before, and I'm trying to fix that."

"Then this is the way to do it, my friend," Enzo replied with a smile. "Me, I'm heading home."

"Home? You live on the other side of Hakonesia Peak?"

"That's right. Actually, my house is on the northern slopes of the mountain itself."

Matt scratched his head. "But isn't this tour a two-way trip?"

Enzo retrieved his ticket and showed it to him. "It is. Each ticket is good for two passages, once each way. Usually, tourists use them to go to Asgard and come right back to Palmacosta once the tour's over. The thing is, the guards don't have any way to check when the ticket was used last." He pocketed his ticket with a smirk. "So once we're through to the northern side, I split from the group and go home, and I hold onto my ticket. Then, when I need to come back this way, I just wait for a tour group to come back and fall in with them."

"Dang. That's pretty clever," Matt chuckled. "Definitely less expensive than those stinking road passes."

The look on Enzo's face told him there was no need to clarify. "Agh, that old goat Koton will get what's coming to him one of these days, and the job'll go to someone more reasonable. I hope it's not old age that gets 'im, though."

* * *

Back at the Skipper's Haven, Colette finished reading Matt's letter for the fourth time and set it down beside her on her bed, still not quite willing to admit defeat yet. "But where could he have gone?" she asked no one in particular.

The five of them had gathered in her and Raine's room once everyone was awake. Kratos, as usual, stood with his back to the door, arms folded. Genis was sitting beside Raine on her bed, while Lloyd sat in the chair.

"It's no longer our concern," Raine answered gently. "Like I said before, traveling with us past Triet was never in Matthew's best interest. He seems to have finally realized this for himself."

"Lloyd and I were never supposed to go on this journey," Genis asserted meekly, "but we're still here."

Lloyd looked up from the floor, resigned. "That's different, Genis, and you know it."

The elf sighed and bowed his head. "I know. We don't have anywhere else now. Well, you do, but I don't."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. We're here as a consequence of what happened in Iselia. Matt came to us because of...  _something_  he couldn't control, and now that he has a choice to stay with us or not, it's his right to make that choice."

"But he feels so bad about it," Colette protested. "He only left because he thought we'd be better off without him-"

Kratos felt that it was time to bring a close to the discussion. "And because violence does not suit him. Let him go in peace, Chosen. It is time we resumed the Journey of Regeneration."

"That's right," Lloyd remembered. "We need to decide what to do about Koton and the Book of Regeneration."

Colette reluctantly decided to let the subject of Matt drop, for the time being. "Right. Should we bring him the Spiritua Statue or prove to him that I'm the Chosen?"

"I've made my position on this matter clear," Raine stated. "Still, either choice is better than trying to take the book by force."

"Or even just read it without permission," Genis grumbled. "It's so unfair - he's demanding a Church of Martel artifact for something that won't cost him anything!"

Before Lloyd's blood could begin to boil at the thought, the wheels in his head started turning - slowly at first, but gradually picking up steam. "We could make him a counteroffer - the statue for the book."

"I doubt he would ever agree to that, however much it would pain him to turn down the statue," Kratos remarked.

"Not for a bunch of strangers, no," Lloyd conceded, "but he might do it for the Chosen."

"So you're set on that course of action?" Raine asked calmly, like she often had whenever Lloyd had given a wrong answer to a question in class.

In this case, however, Genis supported him. "We could scare him into not telling anyone."

"How do we do that?" Colette wondered.

Lloyd remembered all the artifacts Koton had stored up in his house. "I think I have an idea," he ventured, "but I don't think you're gonna like it, Professor Sage."

* * *

XXX

That's about all that happened on the 20th. Now that I've finished, I don't think I'm gonna read this entry again. With that, I'm gonna start the next entry, because I still have some things to say that don't really relate to it.

May 21st part 2

I joined one of the Palmacosta tours that goes to Asgard and back, so I can look for my family there and get away from... whatever happened yesterday. It's a good thing Kratos was out doing his thing last night. There's no way he would have let me go without talking about it first, and that's a conversation I still don't want to have with him. Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to have it with Raine, either. Or Lloyd, or really any of them.

Do NOT get me wrong. I'm already kinda starting to miss Lloyd and the others. Even Raine - well, I was getting used to her, anyway. Being in a big group like this, pretty much everyone else is traveling with someone else and I don't really have anyone to talk to. Chocolat is nice enough (and kinda pretty, to be honest), but she's usually busy leading the tour. Enzo seems to be friends with everyone here, and he's tried to help me make some friends, but I always... sort of just end up off by myself. Maybe it's BECAUSE I miss them... But I can't go back. Not to them. The Desians will come after them again. There'll be fighting, there'll be killing. I can't have any part in it. Even if it means I won't see them again - or at least until after the Journey of Regeneration is complete.

Anyway, that's about all I had on my mind for now. I might jot some more things down later today if anything interesting comes up, but I kinda doubt it will. It'll take us two more days to get to the House of Salvation, if things go smoothly. If they don't, I'll let you know. I hope.

XXX

Matt closed his journal and set it in the crook of the tree branches behind him.

The tour had stopped for the night in a grove of trees just off the road to the House of Salvation and Hakonesia Peak beyond. The tree Matt was sitting in had looked like it was built for climbing in, so as soon as he had been sure his help was not needed, he had set down his staff, pulled himself up to one of the lower branches, and started writing his journal entry for the day. Now, he looked down at the camp from his perch.

The tour group was mostly composed of adults, ranging in age from Chocolat at nineteen to a man named Bernard at sixty-five. Most of them had finished laying out the blankets they would use when it was time to sleep and were now mingling with each other. A few tried to reign in the four rowdy children, whose parents or other relatives had brought them along. Chocolat herself was speaking with the three Palmacostan soldiers who had been assigned to the tour, discussing the night watch. Enzo was, for the moment, nowhere to be seen.

Matt stayed where he was for some time, watching everything and giving a smile and wave to anyone who noticed him sitting there. For the most part, he thought. He thought about his former companions... No, not companions. Friends. Writing that letter to them had shown him that he cared about them more than he had realized when he was with them. He thought about everything that had led up to this point: his memory loss; the fateful encounter with the Chosen's group out in the desert; the decision he had made in Triet; the-

The fortune teller's words to him echoed in his mind in their entirety, even though he had forgotten her exact words by the time the group had reached Ossa Trail:

* * *

_"You stand at a crossroads. What you seek may or may not be found along either path, but the road of greater risk holds greater reward."_

* * *

_Wait. Do I still need to be with them, then? Oh... What if... the risk she was talking about was the threat to my own conscience and sanity? Except for Sheena... killing that Desian was the most dangerous thing to happen to me... Dangit, should I go back?_

He looked down at his clothes. Blood that was not his own had stained his shirt around the collar, a testament not to his hard travels like his torn, dirty shorts or his dusty cloak, but to the violence he had taken part in.  _But I can't go back... Ugh, I should write this out..._

He did not get the chance. At that moment, a cheer went up from below him.

Following the waves and pointing fingers of the people below him, Matt found the source of the excitement. Enzo was returning from the field with a large stag slung over his shoulders.

_Oh, good! Dinner!_

He promptly clambered down from the tree and trotted out of the grove with the others to greet the hunter, and what a greeting it was.

"Well, well! Aren't you just full of surprises, Enzo?"

"Excellent work! Shall we grill it over a fire or make some stew with it?"

"Yay, Mr. Enzo got some food for us!"

"I've said it before, Enzo's a fine young lad! Facing monsters to catch us a meal."

"Wow, an eight-point buck! And you don't even use arrows!"

"So  _that's_  where you disappeared to," Matt added with a grin. "How'd you get it?"

Enzo, however, did not answer any one person just yet. "Let's get a fire going and we'll share a bit of venison," he said as he walked toward the grove.

So Matt turned and walked back at the front of the group to the shade of the trees, stomach beginning to rumble and a warm feeling settling on him, even though the sun was setting. With or without his friends, this was going to be pleasant traveling.


	12. Cruel Irony

After Enzo's stag was cleaned and cooked into a stew, the travelers sat in a circle around a bonfire and ate their dinner together. The sun had gone down, and the darkness had brought with it all the sounds Matt had come to expect from sleeping outside, and he ate his meal at a leisurely pace, knowing that this night would not be followed by another day of being up before the sun. The others were in a similarly good mood, relishing their time away from the worries of everyday life and enjoying each other's company.

And what better way to enjoy each other's company than to tell stories over dinner?

"The poor man was so embarrassed that he left his boots in the confession booth!" Margaret the priestess concluded. She was met with uproarious laughter, much to her satisfaction.

"Oh, I needed that!" Chocolat gasped as she caught her breath. "Thank you, Mother. I haven't had a good laugh since before the Desians yesterday..."

Sounds of disapproval went up from some of the tourists, and grown hands covered the children's ears.

"I've got an interesting story!" Enzo said quickly. "It's about something that happened on my last trip to Palmacosta."

The adults quieted down, and someone shushed the murmuring children. Matt leaned forward over his food to see and hear better. He was finding that stories were a pleasant way to distract himself from his various dilemmas, and Enzo was entertaining to listen to anyway.

The traveler set down his bowl, cleared his throat, and began his tale, voice lowered.

"Some of you already know this: I live on a farm, up on the northern slopes of Hakonesia Peak with my brother and his family. We sell our goods to people in Asgard, and every now and then, I make the trip down to Palmacosta to buy tools and things. This last time, nine days ago, I had just gotten to the bottom of the mountain to join one of the returning tour groups when something went wrong."

Everyone inched closer to the speaker.

Enzo lifted his hands over his head, fingers curled to imitate claws. "A grasshopper jumped out of the bushes at me! It tried to pin me to the ground with its spear-hands so it could eat me!" He stabbed the dirt with his hand to illustrate.

The children gasped and huddled closer to their parents.

"But it just missed me the first time." Enzo retrieved a coiled length of weighted rope from his belt and unfurled it. Only now did Matt realize that it was actually three separate strands, all connected at one end. "So I pulled out my bolas, thinking I could tangle its legs long enough to get away. I got ready to throw it, just like this." He demonstrated, taking hold of the conjoined ends of the ropes and swinging them in a circle over his head.

One of the children, a boy of about ten years, spoke up. "Did you get it all tangled up and run away?"

The storyteller let the bolas slow to a stop and returned them to his belt. "No, I didn't. Before I could throw it, the grasshopper jumped at me again, and it knocked me flat on my back. At that moment, I thought for sure I was gonna be dinner."

"What happened then?" a young girl asked nervously.

Enzo smiled at her. "Well, I'll tell you." He lifted one hand as if to strike the ground in front of him. "Just when it was about to end me...  _Fwoosh!_ "

All the listeners gave a start.

"Suddenly it was gone!" He paused his story here, grinning at his audience.

Matt was the one to break the silence. "It... just disappeared?" he asked skeptically.

Enzo pointed at him triumphantly. "No, my friend! It didn't just disappear. When I picked myself up and looked around..." He pointed to the sky. "There it was, caught in the claws of a wyvern!"

A few heads turned, as if expecting to see the dragon flying overhead.

"A wyvern?" one man wondered. "I thought they always ate their prey where they killed it."

"Oh, they do, mostly!" Bernard interjected. "But the ones with a nest and babies carry off their kills to feed their families."

Enzo took the interruption in stride. "That they do. As soon as I realized that, I high-tailed it out of there just in case it decided to come back for seconds. And I thanked the goddess it was something big like a mantis that came after me, instead of something small like a rabbit!"

The others chuckled and murmured in agreement, except for Matt.  _Rabbits?_ Monster _rabbits? Is that even a thing?_

"What about you, chief?"

Silence. Matt looked up to see who Enzo had addressed; to his surprise and discomfort, all eyes were on him. "Wait, what?"

"You said there was a long story to how you wound up on this tour, right?" Enzo clarified.

"Now that you mention it," Margaret added, "I saw you fighting alongside the Chosen and her allies back in Palmacosta. Why would you ever leave them?"

Matt shrank back a little. "Ah- well, uh..."

"You were with the Chosen?" asked Bernard. "How did that come about?"

A chorus of whispers and mutters began until Chocolat tapped her spoon against her bowl, capturing everyone's attention. "I've heard a little bit of this story," she said. "I'd like to hear it from the beginning, if you're okay talking about it, Matthew."

Once again, he was the center of attention.  _Maybe if I just don't say anything, someone else will start talking..._

The fire crackled, the crickets chirped, and Matt's heartbeat thrummed in his ears.

 _... They're still staring. Crap._  "Well... OK. About... three weeks ago-"

"What was that?" someone asked. "Speak up! We can't hear you."

"Oh, sorry. Ahem..."

So Matt told them his tale, summarizing all that he had witnessed and experienced from his awakening and amnesia in the Triet Desert up until he had joined the tour. For the most part, he only spoke of the events that had happened and left out his thoughts, his feelings, and his conversations with his friends. The only exceptions were when someone asked why he had made a particular choice, such as his decision to go with Colette's group in Triet, and his reckless attack on Sheena at the Ossa Trail. Generally, there were few interruptions, although one or two of the kids drifted off to sleep as he spoke.

For most of the story, Matt looked pointedly at the ground; when he glanced up occasionally, the other pilgrims were gazing at him intently, taking in every word he said. His method of storytelling was by no means as interesting or engaging as Enzo's, but all were enthralled by the tale - the ones who were still awake, at any rate.

At last, he reached the part when he and the others had returned to Palmacosta to confront the Desians. "I don't know what came over me at first... I knew what was going on and what I was doing, but I didn't think or feel anything about it. I think... that's the only reason I... killed that Desian." He sighed and put his head in his hands, trying to stop the memory from replaying in his mind. When he looked up again, none of the others had moved. "Anyway. The Desians will come after Colette again. That's why I joined this tour. I can't... do what I did again."

The listeners started whispering among themselves again.

 _... I just said I can't fight their enemy._  "I'm sorry," Matt breathed as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. "That must sound pretty pathetic to you."

"No, no," Margaret answered. "Not everyone is called to take up arms against our foes. Some lack the strength, others the fortitude, and that is no fault."

"Especially if if it's not your battle to fight," Enzo concurred. "If you don't stand to gain anything, you can't be expected to have a hand in it."

Bernard looked surprised at Enzo. "Doesn't stand to gain anything? The success of the Chosen will bring mana back to the world!"

"But if he's not strong enough to help them complete the journey, maybe it  _is_  best for him to leave them." Chocolat gave Matt an apologetic glance. "No offense."

Matt gave a halfhearted wave of his hand. "That's OK. Nothing that hasn't occurred to me already."

"He's not strong enough  _now_ ," Bernard countered. "By the sound of it, he could have been fairly quickly. I was there yesterday, I saw how easily he killed that Desian. Speared him right through the throat."

Matt flinched at the thought.

"Didn't you hear him just now? He was... in shock or something. It doesn't sound like he could do that normally-"

"But he could learn, and he could keep fighting the Desians until they're sealed away..."

He stopped listening at this point; while Bernard debated with Enzo, Chocolat, and Margaret, the rest of the tourists had their own conversations in their given groups. To him, it had all turned to mindless chatter as he returned to the solitude of his own thoughts. The others had mostly been supportive of his decision, yet he still mulled over it.

 _It's too late now,_  he eventually told himself.  _Even if I did go back, Kratos and Raine would never let me rejoin them. And they'd be right not to._

With that, he laid down wrapped in his cloak to try to sleep. He drifted off before the last whispers of the other travelers died down.

* * *

Matt was back in Palmacosta. He could not remember how he had gotten there, but there he was.

A horde of Desians confronted him. Their comrade, the one he had killed, lay on the ground between him and them.

He looked around. The city's civilians were all gathered behind him. There was no sign of the Palmacostan militia, or of his friends, or even his new traveling companions.

He stood alone, armed with only his staff...

No, his staff was gone. It was back at the inn, where he had left it.

He had to go get it...

Wait. If he was going to run for his staff, he might as well run for the hills, right?

He was scared.

He turned and ran.

Or at least he tried to. The people stood between him and his escape, and he could not weave his way between them fast enough.

Then the screaming started. The sounds of fathers calling for their families, mothers shrieking for their husbands, children crying in confusion and fear... and the Desians unleashing their battle cries.

Matt did not dare to look back. He kept his eyes forward, heart pounding, desperately trying to get clear of the crowd and away from what was undoubtedly going to be a slaughter, but the mass of flailing limbs he found himself in entangled his arms and legs, and it was all he could do to keep from falling over.

The sounds grew closer and closer, louder and louder, filling his ears and shaking his spirit.

The world around him started to spin...

And with a gasp, Matt opened his eyes.

He was awake, but the screaming did not stop.

He bolted upright and looked around to find the waking world was worse off than his dream. The sky was still dark, with the only light coming from their dwindling fire. He had been among the last of the tourists to wake up; the rest were panicking, running in all directions throughout the grove. At the edge of the camp, the last of the three soldiers fell to the ground with a pained groan. A Desian wielding a staff stepped over him.

Matt had been afraid while dreaming, but his sleep had dulled the feeling. Now, it held him in a vice-like grip, leaving him frozen where he sat, unable to move, unable to look away. He could only watch the lead Desian scan the camp with his veiled eyes while others, wielding swords, whips, staves, and crossbows, charged past him into the midst of the travelers.

When his gaze fell on Matt, he planted his staff in the ground in front of him and began waving his arms in a way that would have looked ridiculous anywhere else. The telltale ring of light surrounded him as he prepared to cast a spell.

Two memories flitted through his mind, breaking his fear's grip on him enough to think coherently:

* * *

_"Break the caster's concentration, and you'll prevent the spell from being cast."_

_"Distractions make me mess up, so don't bother me while I'm casting."_

* * *

_Thanks, guys!_  Matt thought gratefully, and he reached for his quarterstaff and climbed to his feet.

He was too late, though. Just as the sorcerer reached to pick up his staff again and unleash his magic, something struck him and he fell, clutching at his neck. A weighted rope was wound around it.

Matt looked where the thing had come from. There was Enzo, swinging another set of bolas over his head, snarling and staring wide-eyed at his enemies. When he saw Matt watching him, he called out: "Go! Get out of here!  _Now!_ "

A trio of crossbow bolts embedded themselves in his chest even as he finished speaking.

" _Enzo!_ "

All aggression in the man's face faded, leaving him shocked and bewildered. The bolas in his hand slowed and fell to the ground, and down he went.

Enzo was far from the only one. Everywhere Matt looked, the others were falling to the Desians' swords, arrows, and magic in their attempts to escape. A dizzy feeling came over him, and his fear tried to reassert dominance over his mind.

_But I left..._

Poor Bernard was impaled on an enemy blade.

_I left to get away from all this!_

Margaret was shot with arrows intended for one of the fleeing families.

_This isn't supposed to be my fight!_

A sword-wielding Desian took notice of him and sauntered over, smirking as he swung his blade.

_I just want to go home!_

Once the Desian was in his range and preparing to attack, Matt leveled his staff at him and, with a loud cry, poured all of his anguish, confusion, and rage into a single thrusting attack that caught his enemy on the jaw.

It did not leave as much of an impression as he had hoped.

The Desian recoiled with a grunt and clutched at his face with his free hand. Then he slowly straightened up, snarling, and spat out a tooth.

Too late, Matt realized how much more difficult a non-lethal approach would be, and his heart sank.  _He's gonna kill me._

Just as he closed his eyes to accept his fate, however, the Desian suddenly blanched and went slack-jawed.

_Huh?_

The half-elf quickly recovered and rushed him, punching him in the abdomen before he knew what was happening.

" _Ahh!_ " Matt dropped his staff and doubled over on his knees, hugging his stomach. The sheer force of the blow instantly made him nauseous, and he vomited on the spot.

The Desian's only response was to hold the blade of his sword against the back of his neck. "Captain!" he called out. "Captain, come quick!"

"He's suffocating, give him a minute!" came the reply as another Desian cut the bolas strangling the sorcerer.

The mage climbed to his feet, holding his staff in one hand and his neck in the other. "Did someone get the girl?" he gasped.

"Don't worry about her, she can't get away from us!" Matt's captor said impatiently. "Look what we have  _here!_ "

 _They know I'm the one who killed that Desian,_  Matt thought as he tried to catch his breath. He also realized in that moment that it was suddenly quiet in the grove.

Sure enough, the apparent leader of this group took one look at him and frowned. "I remember you - you came to Palmacosta with the Chosen and a couple of wanted criminals!"

"Yeah, he did, but that's not the point!  _Look_  at him!"

 _Look at me? Why?_  His stomach settled, Matt was able to look up at the Desians standing over him. More of them had gathered, and as they stared at him with their hidden eyes, each of them gasped, flinched, took a step back, or some combination thereof, starting with the magic-user.

"What in the world...  _is_  that, Phos?"

The Desian holding Matt prisoner answered. "I don't know, but despite what it feels like, it isn't all that dangerous. Not more than a regular human, anyway."

_Regular... human?_

The commander leaned forward to examine him, stepping around his discharged dinner without even looking at it. "It certainly  _looks_  like any other human... even with this strange clothing."

"Yeah, well it isn't," Phos insisted. "I say we bring it back with us!"

"We only have orders to capture the girl."

"Lord Magnius doesn't know about this one yet. Think of how useful he could be in our research!"

As the exchange went on and Matt listened, more fears and more questions sprang up in his mind.  _Research? What research? Why do they want me for it? ... And who's the girl they're supposed to catch?_

"Captain!" another voice cried out. "We have her."

"Let  _go_  of me, you monsters!"

 _Oh, no._  Matt carefully turned his head to see what was happening.

Sure enough, there was Chocolat, being held by the arms on either side by masked Desians. She lifted one foot and brought it down on the toes of one of her captors, but she did not so much as dent his boot. Once she had been brought into the circle of Desians, her knees were kicked out from under her and she was forced to the ground. She looked like she was about to say something else to them, but when she saw Matt, her eyes widened. "Matthew! Not you, too!"

One of the Desians holding her down twisted her arm, and she groaned in pain. "Shut up!"

The leader nodded and looked back at Phos. "Since when do you care about research?"

" _I_  don't, but  _he_  does, and if Lord Magnius wins his favor, we'll all reap the rewards."

_He?_

The other Desians nodded and muttered to each other, while their captain said nothing for almost a minute. Finally, he tapped his staff against the ground, calling for silence. Matt tensed up as his gaze locked onto him "Make my job easier and tell us what exactly you are, will you?"

"What do you me-  _aaaagh!_ " Chocolat's question was cut off by further arm-twisting.

Matt cringed at the sound and looked down. "I... I'm a human being. I don't know why you think I'm not, but I am."

"Who do you think you're fooling?" the captain asked sharply. After another moment's consideration, he looked back up to Phos. "Fine. But you'll be responsible for getting it back to the ranch intact. Lord Magnius can reward your efforts as he sees fit." He glanced around at his troops and nodded to himself. "Right. We have the bait, and we have the freak. Cuff them and let's move out!"

"Bait?!"

" _Freak?_ "

Neither prisoner got any clarification; their wrists were shackled behind their backs, and they were each hoisted over the shoulder of a Desian and carried off into the night.

"Put me down,  _now!_ " Chocolat demanded, trying in vain to kick at the face of her captor. "Governor-general Dorr won't stand for this! You'll all be sorry!"

Her threats went unanswered. Matt, meanwhile, stared back at the camp behind them. The Desians had left the fire going, and the light cast eerie orange glows and dark shadows on the bodies of his traveling companions. There was no sight nor sound of anyone left alive. He felt like he must still be dreaming; it was too surreal for him to be awake. His tour group being wiped out by Desians in the middle of nowhere, with him being one of two survivors, on the day after he had left to avoid conflict with them was too much of a coincidence. Then there was the way the half-elves talked to and about him, as if he were something inhuman - not unlike Raine had done a few times.

 _I'm hallucinating... I must be._  But the pain of being jostled up and down as Phos walked and the sour taste in his mouth begged to differ. _  
_

* * *

For the rest of that night and the following three days, the Desians marched back to their ranch with their captives in tow. They ate their meals on the move and only stopped to rest when they became tired, which was seldom. It was the same each time it happened; Matt and Chocolat were set on the ground in the middle of the group and given enough food and water to survive, but not enough to keep their tongues from drying or their stomachs from gurgling. They were each given one chance at each rest stop to relieve themselves - although their cuffs were not removed for it, so they had to be assisted. It was humiliating enough for Matt; when he saw Chocolat being taken away for her turn the first time it happened, he imagined she must have been mortified, assuming she was not too busy being outraged. Then, when they were ready to move on again, Chocolat was handed off to a Desian who had not carried her yet, while Matt was always carried by Phos, as per the Desian captain's orders.

The two prisoners were not allowed to speak to each other; in fact, Chocolat was gagged soon after their capture, and they only removed it to let her eat and drink. Hence, they both had a lot of time to themselves to think during those three days. Chocolat's hatred for the Desians burned and festered, kindled by everyone she had lost to them and perpetuated by their present treatment of her. Matt, on the other hand, was trying simply to figure out where he had gone wrong.

 _If I hadn't left Colette and the others, this wouldn't have happened... But I wouldn't have left if I hadn't killed that Desian... and I wouldn't have killed that Desian if I had stayed back in Triet. So should I have stayed there? Or should I not have joined this tour? Crap, I wish I could write this out._  He could still picture his journal set between the branches of the tree back at the grove, where he had left it.

Back where half the people he had known in the world lay dead.

Matt shook his head. He still could not fathom how anyone could kill like that. Men, women, children, elders - all unarmed with the exception of Enzo and the three soldiers, and all cut down without mercy, whereas taking one life in battle had pushed his mind to its breaking point.

"All right, put 'em down and let 'em walk."

Just as the words registered, Matt suddenly found himself dropped down onto his feet. With his hands behind his back and his ankles chained together, he lost his balance and fell over.

"Ngh!" he grunted as his head hit the dirt and stars danced in front of his eyes.  _Add that to the list..._  Between being folded over on his stomach while he was carried, his arms falling asleep, his head hanging from his neck, and blood to his legs being cut off, most every other part of his body already hurt. This aside from the fact that he was underfed and dehydrated.

Phos reached down, grabbed him by one arm and hoisted him to his feet again. "Get up!" he grunted.

Matt wobbled for a moment before finding his balance again, and he tried to get his bearings. The troop stood at the edge of a dense, dark forest. Chocolat had also been roughly set on the ground and was glaring at the Desian who had been carrying her.

 _They... brought us to the middle of nowhere,_  he thought. Until he noticed a series of odd, muffled sounds from within the forest. It took him some time to figure out why this gave him pause: other than these sounds, there was dead silence, with no sight nor sound of monsters in the area. For all the green of the trees and the surrounding grass, the place felt dead.

The commander looked around and shrugged. "All right, men. You know the drill. Form up."

At this, Phos took hold of Matt's cuffs and started walking, nearly making him fall over again. With his ankles shackled, Matt found he had to practically waddle to keep up. The Desians quickly arranged themselves in a three-by-six column, with their captain alone at the front, Chocolat behind him, and Matt behind the Desian holding onto her.

"Okay, let's go."

The sounds in the forest grew louder and more distinct the further in they went. Every now and then, a raised voice could be heard, often either preceded or followed by a sharp cracking sound. A low droning underscored it all.

_Machines?_

With Desians on all sides, Matt could not see any sign of their destination or the source of the noises until they emerged from the trees after a half hour of walking. He did not see it coming until they were practically on top of it.

An enormous compound loomed up before them, occupying a large clearing, with high, gray metal walls covered in patterns of geometric shapes. Purple-clad, helmeted Desians could be seen patrolling the perimeter of the wall, both at its base and along the top of it. With its gigantic size, unfamiliar design, and isolated location, it reminded Matt of the building he had awoken beside after losing his memory.

After the captain had a quick word with the guards, the troop passed through a gate and archway and into the yard inside the compound. Here the sound of machines was still subdued, but the shouts and the cracking noises were at their peak. Matt could just see past the Desians surrounding him to find what was happening: Desian whipmasters lashing out at workers in sack cloth. Men, women, and children, all gaunt and bent over, solemnly working at various tasks: some digging, some pushing humongous blocks, and some working together to lift them. The younger ones would cry out or whimper at the bite of the whip; the adults only grunted at most and redoubled their efforts, their eyes dead.

 _This is... a human ranch?_ Matt was grateful he did not see more before the troop entered the largest of the buildings. What he had seen filled him with pain and revulsion as it was.

They entered a well-lit corridor, with gold- and maroon-colored walls, and doors and branching hallways to either side. The flat, bare walls, floors, and ceilings caused every sound to echo, raising the volume of the Desians' marching and the clinking of the prisoners' shackles to conspicuous levels. Traces of other noises could be heard from some place hidden to them - hollow booms of doors closing, the whirring of machines, and distant cries of some unfortunate soul. Combined with the heavy scent of strong chemicals, the ranch's interior had an exceptionally unwelcoming atmosphere.

From one of the side passages, another Desian hurriedly approached the captain and spoke with him in low tones so that the prisoners could not hear. Finally, the sorcerer turned to face them, tapped his staff against the ground, and indicated two of his underlings. "You two, get the girl processed and take her to one of the cell blocks."

 _They're separating us?!_  That did not bode well. Matt craned his neck to try to watch where they took Chocolat, dreading the thought of being alone in this place and facing whatever sinister purposes the Desians had for him. Judging by the panicked look she gave him as she was escorted down a side hallway and out of sight, she felt something similar.

"Phos," the captain continued, "come with me and bring that one to Lord Magnius' office for my report. The rest of you are dismissed. Resume your normal duties in eight hours."

* * *

**May 4, 9:15 PM**

"Lord Botta!"

"Captain. What is the matter?"

"It's about the body that appeared outside."

"Oh? What about it?"

"It's... moving."

"What?!"

"It's standing at the door, trying to get inside."

"That should be impossible! It was dead, we all felt it!"

"We don't know how, but-"

**Captain! Captain!**

"... What is it, Sergeant?"

**The thing at the door - it's gone.**

"Gone?!"

**It just turned around and walked out into the desert.**

"... Lord Botta, should we go after it?"

"And do what with it? Bring it inside our base of operations? We have no way of knowing what it is or what it can do. It may have even been an illusion of some sort... If it appears again, I'll report it to Lord Yuan. Let the matter be for now."

"Very well. Thank you, Sergeant. No further action required."

**Yes, sir.**


	13. Inhuman

_I'm never getting out of here, am I?_

Matt was not simply being pessimistic. The path to Magnius' office consisted of a series of square rooms, identical in appearance, linked by teleportation pads found in each corner. He assumed that was what they were, at any rate. Each time Phos and the Desian captain brought him to one, there was a flash of light, he felt the falling sensation that occasionally woke him from the verge of sleep, and there would suddenly be other Desians walking through the room where there had been none before, or none where some had been.

This had happened four times before it dawned on him what was happening, and it took another two teleportations for him to accept it as real. Even after that, he deemed the path to be too convoluted and disorienting to make any sense of.

_How do Desians even get through here without a map?_

Still, either in spite of his growing apprehension or to distract himself from it, the Palmacosta Ranch's architecture struck him. The only floor space in the teleporter rooms were the paths connecting them; all else was just vast, deep pits that went down further than he could see. Distant, ominous noises drifted out of them, mingling with the sounds of footsteps and his shackled ankles. He would never learn what was happening down there, but the stench of chemicals was explained when the trio passed a Desian scrubbing the floor of the last teleporter room with a handheld broom-like machine; the scent was so strong there that Matt had a brief fit of coughing.

"Knock it off," the captain snapped just before they boarded the teleporter.

With that, they arrived at their destination. Matt blinked to try to clear away the colored spots in his vision from the teleporter's flash of light. When it was gone, any remaining fascination he had had with the ranch vanished.

The room itself was little different from the rest of the compound's interior in terms of design. However, the walls were lined with eye-level holographic displays, there were no doors, windows, or teleporters other than the one they had entered with, and rather than having narrow halls or walkways, the office featured a spacious, empty floor. More impressively, facing away from them at the far end of the room, a round sofa was floating above some sort of machine, suspended in thin air by what must have been magitechnology. Someone was reclining on it; Matt could not tell who until the aparatus revolved around to face the visitors.

It was the same scarred, burly half-elf who had killed the boy in Palmacosta.

Matt's heartbeat and breath quickened at the realization that this was the Lord Magnius he kept hearing the Desians talking about.

_He beat down a kid for throwing rocks, and I killed one of his men... What'll he do to me?_

"I thought you were coming to give a mission report, Darnal," Magnius grunted as his floating couch lowered to the ground; his gravelly voice grated on Matt's ears. Once he was down, he stood and approached the captain. "Why'd you bring that vermin in here?"

"The mission was a success, Lord Magnius," the captain answered quickly. "We captured the girl; by now, she's been processed and locked up." He gestured to Matt with his staff. "This one was in her company. Due to its... unique mana signature-"

_My mana signature?_

"- Phos insisted we bring it along, as well."

Magnius looked Matt square in the eye, and the young man shrank back as much as he could, which was precious little with Phos restraining him. Even as he did, the grand cardinal took half a step back, the whites of his eyes visible.

"Ugh! What is that?"

"We don't know," Darnal answered helplessly. "We thought-"

"You don't know what it is," Magnius interrupted, "but you brought it here?  _To my office?_ "

"Phos thought we might use it in our Exsphere research! That you could use it to curry favor with Lord Yggdrasil!"

"Exsphere research? That's Kvar and Rodyle's business, not mine!"

Even with all this new information being tossed back and forth, Matt noticed the hands holding his cuffs start to shake a little. "Ah - what Captain Darnal means is, we can study this thing and see if Exspheres will work on it, and then you can present it to Lord Yggdrasil once we've made some respectable progress!"

"My name's Matthew."

Six Desian eyes turned on the speaker. "What was that?" Magnius asked.

Setting aside his confusion at the ideas of Exsphere research, mana signatures, Rhode Isle and Kavar, and Lord Eggdrasill, Matt finally gave in to his mounting frustration. "My name's Matthew. I'm a human being, and I'm tired of being -  _AAAGGHH!_ "

His limbs went slack and he slumped to the ground, with only Phos holding him up by his now twisted arms. The pain caused his vision to blur, and he all but missed Phos hurriedly speaking up again. "See? There's no danger from this one! If it could fight back, it would have by now!"

Darnal cut in before Magnius could respond, the nervous edge gone from his voice. "Kvar loaned you a few of his scientists, didn't he? We have the facilities - even if Exsphere research can't be conducted on it here, they can at least determine what this thing is and whether it will be suitable for further research."

"I'm not...  _an IT._ "

A spike of pain erupted on the side of Matt's head, and he lost consciousness.

* * *

Captain Darnal lowered his staff and relaxed his grip on it. "We can always dump it out in the wild for someone or something else to deal with," he offered.

Magnius folded his arms and furrowed his brow; his gaze went vacant as his mind worked. Normally, if a proposition required too much thought, he simply abandoned it. This, however, was beginning to sound like a rare opportunity. "Hmph... No, don't. Killing the Chosen and taking back the criminal vermin's Exsphere will help me get the edge over the other Cardinals, even Pronyma." His scowl morphed as the corners of his mouth raised up into a savage grin. "If this thing is the breakthrough you think it can be, I'll become the leader of the Grand Cardinals for sure!" As if suddenly becoming aware of his two lackeys, he looked up at them impatiently. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get that thing down to the lab!"

Phos promptly obeyed, dragging Matt's limp body to the teleporter. However, Darnal remained where he was after the other two had gone. "There  _is_  one more thing, Lord Magnius."

The grand cardinal tapped his foot. "Well, what is it already?!"

"The test subject was a companion of the Chosen at the botched execu- er... at the time of our last visit to Palmacosta," the Desian captain explained. "When I send the message regarding the girl, should I make sure they know about this one as well? They will have more incentive to come here if they do."

"What for?" Magnius spat. "The stupid vermin came to save her mother. They'll come for her. I don't want  _anyone_  outside this ranch to know the freak is here - Kvar will try to steal the credit if it works! In fact... have the communications in the lab shut off before you send the message."

Darnal nodded once. "Yes, Lord Magnius." With that, he turned and left the office.

Once he was back in the corridor with Phos, he calmly approached his underling, who had stopped to wait when Darnal had not immediately joined him.

"What happened just now, Captain?" Phos inquired.

Darnal answered him by taking hold of the back of his neck, digging his gloved fingers into a series of pressure points.

The Desian soldier dropped Matt and let out a loud cry, his whole body going rigid. "Ah-ah-ah-AAAAHAHAHAW WHY?!"

"Your little stunt could have landed us in custodial duty," Darnal stated, keeping an iron grip on Phos as he squirmed to get away. "That's the last time I stake my career on your curiosity. Next time, when we have our marching orders, you'll follow the instructions you're given  _to the letter_ , or else I'll hand you off to a far less understanding commander. Got it?"

"IgotitIgotitIgotit! Just lemme go, let me...  _aaaahhhhh_ ," Phos sighed as the pressure on his neck let up, and he slouched over.

"And you're still too easily distracted," Darnal grunted as he proceeded to a teleporter. "You get the freak to the lab. I need to stop by communications."

Phos rubbed the back of his neck and silently glared at his superior. Once he had teleported away, he picked up Matt again, grumbling all the while. "Not like it was  _my_  idea to bring it to Lord Magnius without warning. You could have called ahead. Custodial duty might do you some good, you old..."

He paused when he noticed the Desian who had been cleaning the floor when they had arrived. He was staring at him, his brush idling in his hands.

Phos' mood soured further. "What are you looking at?"

The janitor shrugged and calmly resumed his duties, leaving Phos to his mutterings.

* * *

Blackness.

Silence.

_Pain._

... And a raging itch on his chest.

When Matt first came to, these were all he was aware of. His brow furrowed with pain as his head throbbed; he thought about reaching up to feel the spot for a bump.

_Nah, probably shouldn't... Dangit, I gotta scratch this itch, though._

He did so, gently rubbing the spot with his fingernails. When this did not immediately bring relief, he scratched a little harder and faster. No dice. He kept going; all the while, his consciousness gradually returned. He was lying on a hard, flat surface, and he felt incredibly disoriented. The smell of chemicals still permeated the air.

_Why does my head hurt, anyway? What happened? Uh, let's see... Traveling to Asgard... Oh... the Desian attack. Enzo, Bernard, Margaret, all of them gone... except me and Chocolat. What were they doing with us?_

Matt's eyes snapped open, and a bright, colorless light shining on him made him squint and blink.

 _Ow! Where am I?_  He tried to sit up, but did not get far before his head fell back onto whatever he was lying on, resulting in a hollow thudding sound.

A man's voice spoke. "The subject! It's hurting itself!"

A female voice answered: "Well, don't just stand there! Hold its arms down!"

Before Matt could wonder what subject the voices were talking about, a pair of gloved hands took hold of both his wrists and forced them down to his side.

"Ah! Hey! What are you doi-" a violent burst of coughing came over Matt, stopping him mid-sentence; he could feel his windpipe shaking and rattling when he tried to speak.

_I know that feeling._

He forced his eyes open enough to see a person's silhouette standing over him, features obscured by the back-lighting. The brightness forced him to look down at himself, and what he saw there alarmed him.

His green-and-blue striped shirt was gone, as were his shorts and his shoes. Instead, he was wearing a shirt and pants made of what looked and felt like blotchy brown burlap, oddly-colored stitches running all over them, while his feet were bare. The fabric on his chest was stained red.

" _AHH!_  What?!" Matt lurched forward in another attempt to sit up before he was forced back down. As he struggled to get free, he realized his fingers were wet.

Wet with his own blood.

"We need to tie it down!" the man restraining him called out.

"Working on it!" the unseen woman shouted.

"Let me  _go!_ " Matt growled. He decided to try kicking his feet - something,  _anything_  to get away. As he did so, something was fitted over each of his arms above his elbows.

"Administering mild electrical shock."

_Uh-oh._

It was indeed a mild shock, as far as the Desians were concerned. A twinge ran through every muscle between the electrodes on his arms, biting at his nerves. Matt yelped at the pain of it, but the worst of it was when he felt his heartbeat stutter for a moment before returning to normal.

He tentatively decided that actively resisting his captors would not be productive at that point. He lay where he was, arms and legs rigid as each of his limbs and his waist was strapped to the table.

"Subject secured," the man stated once it was done.

Matt heard receding footsteps, which promptly returned with the second silhouette.

"Administering topical application of lemon gel to the wound," the woman's voice said.

" _Lemon_  gel?" Matt echoed. He flinched and his eyes widened. " _Ah!_  That's not a gel!"

The woman brandished a small knife and slit open the blood-stained fabric in a single motion, revealing the raw, bloody skin underneath. Before Matt could react to it, she produced a translucent yellow blob and rubbed it over the area. Up to that point, he had always used gels by eating them, and for whatever reason, having it applied directly to a wound made his skin crawl even more as the damage he had caused himself was healed. Despite the bleeding, he never actually felt pain at his injury spot; it just felt itchy.

Once Matt's skin was restored, the woman removed and put away the gel and leaned over to get a closer look. Now, without having to look up toward the light to see her, he was finally able to see some of her features: chalk-blue lab coat, purple hair tied neatly into a bun, pointed ears, and goggles that hid her eyes. Clearly another half-elf, but without the uniform Desians typically wore.

He looked at her uncertainly. "Uh... thanks?"

"The damage has been repaired," she stated thoughtfully, "but the tissue still appears to be inflamed."

Her partner entered Matt's field of vision to see for himself. He wore a matching lab coat and goggles, and he wore his silver hair slicked back. "It must be a reaction to the cleaning solvent, like earlier."

"But we haven't used any on it since then."

"Perhaps it's being caused by it breathing the fumes, then?"

"It... also itches, if that makes a difference," Matt ventured.

"In any case," the woman said to the man, "we should try to treat it."

"Is that really necessary?" the man countered.

"If it  _is_  a histamine response, there's no way of knowing when or where the reaction will stop. Listen to its voice; its airways are already being affected."

Matt decided to give it another go. "Why do you care if I'm healthy, anyway?"

"Fine," the male scientist grunted. "I'll prepare and administer the injection if you prep the subject."

A chill suddenly entered Matt's fingers and toes and worked its way up his limbs. "Injection?!"

As the man left his sight, the woman ducked beneath the table Matt was on, and something clicked. To Matt's alarm, the platform tilted forward under him, stopping at a near upright angle so that only his restrained limbs and waist kept him from falling off. Without the light blinding him, he was finally able to see his surroundings.

He was at one end of a sizable rectangular chamber with pale blue-gray walls and flooring. The lab at the Eastern Ranch was actually paltry compared to some of the others; Magnius would not have had one at all if it had been his choice. Still, Yggdrasil had mandated that each ranch be equipped to carry out experiments in case the need ever arose. However, the Grand Cardinal had been a bit careless with this lab, and it had fallen into disarray. Pronyma, in turn, had arranged for these two scientists - underlings of Kvar - to restore it to working order. They had nearly finished when Phos had brought Matt down to them. Matt, of course, knew none of this. At present, desks and work benches were grouped in clusters near the edges of the room, while metal racks and shelves filled with unfamiliar objects lined most of the walls. Off in one corner lay a pile of empty containers of some kind, while a teleporter could be seen in an alcove in the middle of one of the longer walls.

He was still trying to take it all in when the female scientist put a metal rod between his teeth. Surprised and disgusted, he spit it out; it rang when it struck the hard floor.

The woman sighed audibly and picked it up off the ground. "If it was solely for your own good," she said disinterestedly, "I wouldn't bother. But I'd hate to have to explain to Lord Magnius, and then to Lord Kvar, why such a promising subject bit its own tongue and choked on its own blood."

A pit formed in Matt's stomach. Being unable to tell what she was looking at, it had taken him a moment to figure out she had been speaking to him. Her words gave him two realizations. One, the metal rod was for biting on in the event of extreme pain; this in itself did not bode well. Two, these Desians' regard for him only extended to his body, his "unique" mana signature - something they saw in him that was potentially useful to them.

He was their lab rat.

All this sunk in as the female scientist rolled up his right sleeve, exposing his upper arm, and wiped it down with a cloth dipped in strong-smelling liquid.

He had experienced this before.

A memory flew through Matt's mind. Not of any specific instance, but an amalgamation of moments he knew now that he had gone through. His heartbeat quickening as his arm was cleaned, his head almost automatically turning to one side, the "pinch" of the needle impaling him and forcing fluids into his bloodstream.

When he noticed the male scientist approaching with a monstrously oversized syringe, he could not imagine this time going any better than it had prior. "Why an injection?" he asked, his voice rising slightly in pitch; the woman went to put the rod back between his teeth as he spoke. "Isn't there a pill or something?! You wouldn't waste a neehle hah wah!"

"The subject is ready," the woman stated, and she stepped away and out of Matt's sight.

 _No! No I'm not!_  Matt tried to yell. The bitter-tasting rod turned his words into a string of panicked grunting, which the man quietly ignored as he approached his right arm.

Self-control went completely out the window. Matt struggled against his restraints, turning his face away to the left as he did, heart pounding and vision blurring.

_Maybe if I move too much, they won't be able to-_

The needle plunged into his flesh.

He let out a howl of pain and blacked out completely.

* * *

Kolter removed the syringe from Matt's arm and took it to a bin set aside from the other empty containers: the one they used for garbage. "Pitiful," he muttered as he dropped it in. "Still, there can be no doubt now that it does, in fact, have a soul closely tied to its body."

Iridia wiped away the blood the injection had left behind and applied more lemon gel to the spot. "An incredibly soft one at that," she responded. "It belies the power it holds."

"Which brings us to the next question." Kolter removed his gloves and tossed them onto an empty work bench, then returned to his partner, voice lowered. "Remember, the soldiers here told us it accumulates mana when it eats food, but its body never puts it to use. If it  _is_  a purely organic being, what energy is keeping it alive?"

"That's not what we need to know," Iridia snorted. "As long as it can survive on our food, which it clearly has up to now, the source of its life-force is of no consequence. What we need to find out is how its mana interacts with its body, and whether it can be extracted by Exspheres."

Kolter nodded. "Did you sense something when we shocked it?"

"Yes, there was a fluctuation in its mana signature."

"Barely noticeable, but it was there."

"Perhaps exposure to mana-based energies stimulates its accumulated mana somehow..."

"Then how shall we proceed?"

Iridia did not answer for a short time; she folded her arms and put a hand to her chin. "I'm not certain. It would be best if we could obtain Lord Kvar's opinion on the matter, but with external communications down, we're on our own."

"Then I ask again," Kolter stated patiently. "How shall we proceed?"

His partner was silent for a little while longer as she weighed their options and the knowledge they had gained thus far. Finally, "We should learn more about how its mana behaves before we try to harness it with an Exsphere. I propose we expose the subject to more electrical shocks and observe the results."

"Very well. I'll record our activities and our plan. We can send them on to Lord Kvar once communications are online again."

"Good. I'll prepare for the experiment. You put the subject away until it's ready."

Kolter wrinkled his nose. "Why wait? We already have electrodes on it. We could start now."

He could not see it, but Iridia's eyes narrowed at his question and attitude. "We need to ensure that the shocks will not kill the subject. Besides, it's not conscious right now. It may be able to give us feedback on the procedure when it's awake."

He shrugged. "Perhaps. All right. It might be entertaining to see how it reacts, anyway."

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, Matt came to once again - not in the lab, but inside a small, bare room with one locked door, no windows, and a tray of what vaguely resembled food beside him. An empty, chair-sized container stood off in the corner; he was disgusted when he realized what it was for.

After calling out for a while, trying and failing to open the door, and reluctantly using the container, he sat leaning against the wall with the food tray, despondent. Unlike back in the lab, he had plenty of time to himself once he was fully awake to take stock of his situation. Clearly, the Desians still had some confusion as to his race. What was so special about his mana signature that made them think he was anything other than a human?

Whatever it was, it must have been particularly desirable for them to take him alive after slaughtering Enzo and the others on sight...

He shuddered and glumly picked at the moist gray lump he was supposed to eat. It all seemed so senseless. They had apparently been sent to kidnap Chocolat, a mere tour guide and the daughter of a shop clerk. At least eliminating the soldiers barring their way was understandable; none of the others posed the slightest threat to them - even Enzo, he realized. Furthermore, all the others had tried to flee. The memory of seeing them hunted down like animals, the screams of the children, the splashing of blood on the ground, and the chilling silence they had left behind... It made his stomach churn and his eyes water.

_They're the inhuman ones... not me._

Which brought Matt back to his current predicament. If he was different enough to be captured rather than killed on sight, there was no way the Desians would take any chances with him. They would keep him there alive and...  _What are they gonna do to me again?_... until they decided they could not use him anymore.

 _Even if they_ do _get at all careless, if I try to run they'll just... Huh. I guess they_ wouldn't _kill me, actually. Then... do I have anything to lose by trying? But... I don't know where in the ranch I am. I don't know where the lab is. If I had to go through those teleporter rooms... They'd find me. They'd make sure I could never try again. Besides, they all have Exspheres, and I still suck at fighting._

The idea of breaking out, then, seemed impossible. That left staying until he was released or killed, or somehow being rescued.

_Lloyd... Kratos... Everyone... They could probably get me out of here. But they don't know I'm here. They don't know I was on that tour. I... ran away. I ran away. They saved me, how many times? They let me come with them. They practically made me one of them. And I paid them back by leaving them... Ugh! I'm such a turd! Why did I ever..._

But he knew the answer to that. The green-eyed Desian he had killed had still not left him; he lurked in the corner of his mind, pouncing at every chance to torment him with his dead, stone-cold gaze. He continued reasoning with himself in a vain attempt to dispel the phantom.

 _That's why. I don't want to kill anyone... and I thought that, somehow, I could get away from the one I DID kill._  He held his head in his hands, ignoring the pain in his right arm from the injection; at the very least, his asthmatic allergies were gone, taking with them his itching and congestion.  _But that way brought me here. Was it the wrong thing to do? ...If nothing else, it was selfish. In fact... Everything I've done up to now, it's ultimately been for me. I asked to join them so I could go home... I tried to fight so I wouldn't lose them and be stranded... And I tried to run away from my own guilty conscience. Is that who I am?_

His hands started to quiver, his fingers absently clutching at his hair, and a drop of water fell from his eye into his lap.  _Maybe I deserve this._

So Matt sat in silence, struggling with the ghost he had made for himself, his fears and regrets, and the tears that threatened to spill over.

Until another thought came to him: a still, small thought that cut through his darkness unbidden, the last such thought that would do so.

_It's time to remember._

As if he had suddenly been drenched in cold water, Matt gasped, sitting up straight, and chills went down his spine as a part of his memory returned to its place in his mind.

The first memory was of his father -  _My dad..._  The one who had provided for his family since before he was born, the one who had taught him how to be a man. He did not recall any of the times he had spent with him, but he could remember  _him_. The second memory was of his faith, which had shaped his view of the world and of himself.

Once the initial shock passed, and the old memories mingled with the new, he broke down sobbing.

_Oh... Oh, God, I'm sorry... How could I forget you? I'm so sorry... And_ _Dad... Where are you now? You... must be worried sick. And I might never find you again._

These memories could not help Matt escape and brought no hope of rescue, and remembering his father brought the pain of knowing exactly what he had lost. However, he now had what he needed to weather the storms both within and without. He had answers about his past to cling to, elements of his identity that, as far as he could see, would always be true. Furthermore, his faith brought back with it his perspective on pain and tragedy: that it was fleeting in the face of what he believed was to come.

He wiped his eyes and sniffed.  _I'll get through this,_  he decided weakly,  _one way or the other. Until then..._

A clicking sound outside the room startled him. The door to his cell split down the middle and withdrew into the walls to reveal the scientist woman and a Desian footsoldier.

"Good," the woman said flatly, "you're awake. It's time to begin testing. You're the first of your kind we've ever seen, and what we are about to attempt has never been done. If you give us decent feedback, we might see about making you more comfortable between tests."

Matt's swollen eyes widened and his breath quickened, but this time, his fear did not reach his core as the soldier cuffed his wrists, pulled him to his feet, and escorted him out of the cell.  _Until then_ , his thought continued,  _this is gonna hurt._


	14. Endurance Test

_This is gonna hurt_  turned out to be a grave understatement.

Actually, Matt never really stated it, did he? He thought it to himself... Underthought? You get the idea.

"AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" He screamed as the electrical current surged through his body. He had hoped the continued electrocution would numb his body to it; no such luck. The burning bite of the shocks only lessened when the apparatus he was connected to was turned off. His skin burned, his muscles seized, and his nerves all felt like they were being stabbed with white-hot needles.

Every time there was a pause in the current, Matt was left a gasping, twitching, sweaty mess; he imagined he could still feel arcs of electricity zipping across his body. His throat was raw from crying out, and his wrists and ankles were chafed from their restraints.

Meanwhile, Kolter and Iridia would take the time to compare their notes and observations on the shock therapy and, using this data, decide what adjustments to make to the process. Frequency, power, current, and duration - all of them needed to be isolated as variables in order to understand their test subject's mana.

Which was quickly presenting a problem for the two Desian scientists.

For his part, Matt was only dimly aware of them when they went to flip switches and turn knobs on the terminal for the metal coils delivering the electrical shocks. His pleas for them to stop the tests, if they were not totally ignored, were met with questions about what exactly he felt during and after the shocks. Forming a comprehensible description of the experience, he soon realized, was much more difficult than it should have been. Even when he succeeded, his answers appeared to displease the half-elves.

He lost all track of time in that lab. The pain being inflicted on him made thinking coherently near impossible and pushed him ever closer to the brink of insanity. His one and only comfort during that experiment was that it was going to end sooner or later. Rescue was still improbable, but not impossible; the Desians were only slightly more likely to simply release him. The most promising way out, in his mind, was to succumb to the electrocution and go on to heaven - in his God's presence, free of this torment, and ready to meet his family again when their own times came.

Before things came to that, however, Iridia threw the switch that turned off the machine and called for an end to the day's experiment.

"We  _need_  to hold an Exsphere trial before this goes any further!" she stated firmly. It was evident to Kolter that she was just as upset about this development as he was.

"Fine," Kolter snapped. While his partner went to remove Matt from the work table he was on, he went to the lab's portable holocom projector and activated it. A three-dimensional, translucent image of a Desian soldier appeared before him. "We're done here for today," he said curtly. "Come and take the subject back to its cell. We'll have further instructions when you get here."

"All right, I'll be right down," the projection of Phos grunted, and the image vanished.

Kolter pursed his lips and shook his head. "Soldier brat," he muttered. He had assumed the Desians under Magnius would understand basic holocom etiquette; it was standard practice to let the one who had initiated the call hang up.

"I think working with us is something of a punishment for him," Iridia remarked as she finished undoing Matt's restraints. "Do we have a working Key Crest?"

"Along with our Exspheres," Kolter affirmed. He went to the counter behind him and retrieved a metal briefcase before joining Iridia by Matt's side.

She looked again at their subject's arms. "It's clearly right-hand dominant," she observed. "Equip the Exsphere to the left hand."

The touch of the Exsphere to the back of his left hand was strange and uncomfortable enough for him to notice, even while his mind was still scrambled. It felt as if a bug or some other small creature was clinging to his skin. When he looked down at it, however, it looked like a round, smooth, lavender-colored pebble, no different from the one Kratos had worn.

"An Exsphere? Why?" he tried to ask. He was only able to manage an indecipherable mumble.

Soon after, the lab's teleporter whirred to life, and Phos materialized in a flash of light.

"Good, you're here," Iridia said brusquely. She did not give the young soldier time to ask any questions. "Make sure the subject is given food and water - but keep them out of its reach until it comes to its senses. In five hours, if it can stand, put it to work with the other prisoners for... eight hours. Make sure it feels all the discomfort of an ordinary prisoner."

"I know how Exsphere culturing works," Phos spat. "Am I going to have to carry the freak again?"

"I'm afraid so," Iridia answered, not the least bit sorry. "Get on with it, then; we've been at this all day."

* * *

Matt was dimly aware of what was happening when Phos slung him over his shoulder, grumbling about his own busy day, and carried him out of the room. His wordless elation at the conclusion of the torture eased the pain still gnawing at him, mind and body; it soured and turned to bitterness a short while later, when he realized he was back in his cell and that the Desians were not finished with him just yet.

So he sat leaning against the wall once again, ignoring Phos when he eventually delivered a food tray and a cup of water. His appetite was completely gone; in his state, the very idea of eating made him queasy. Hence, he took the opportunity to think. Remembering his beliefs the last time he had been in this room had given him only just enough strength to endure the testing, but it had also left him with some questions to sort through with himself: questions he had been unable to wonder about during the experiment.

The ranch was turning out to be a kind of hell on Earth. Nothing he had endured since losing his memory could even be compared to it adequately. Getting blown into the mountainside might have, had he not lost consciousness virtually on impact... But that was beside the point. The God he remembered serving was said to be one of infinite power and incomparable goodness; why, then, was this happening to him? What purpose could there possibly be in such senseless cruelty and suffering?

Matt sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. He could remember plenty of stories within the Bible about men and women whose suffering had ultimately brought about some greater good, both for themselves and for those around them. It was all well and good hearing about such things long after they had happened; living through them, he was coming to realize, pushes the subject to their limits, be they physical, emotional, or otherwise. As it was, imagining something good happening was becoming more and more difficult; imagining his present situation  _bringing about_  something good was all but impossible.

 _...Why am I here?_  he finally prayed, a mixture of sweat and tears running down his face and onto his prison garb.  _You could have kept me from this place... I'd rather have gotten eaten by a monster than be here. Next time they take me down there... next time they zap me... I'm gonna break, I just know it. Why would you let them bring me here? Are you... are you punishing me for killing that Desian? I didn't know what I was doing - I'm sorry! Just get me out of here, please... just get me out..._

He spent a little while longer pleading, apologizing, bargaining, and practically accusing before he slipped into an uneasy but much-needed sleep.

* * *

Four and a half hours later, something struck Matt in the side, knocking him down from the sitting position he had been sleeping in. The sharp pain caused him to wake with a yelp, and little lights danced before his eyes as he glanced up at Phos leering over him.

"Go on, get up," the half-elf grunted.

Matt's side was throbbing, and the rest of his body still ached from being electrocuted, but fearing what Phos might do if he refused, he attempted to comply. Cradling his bruised ribs with one hand, he tried to push himself up off the ground with the other. It slipped on the cool, smooth floor and he fell back down with a moan.

"Come on, I didn't kick you  _that_  hard," Phos grumbled, tapping his boot against the ground. "Now get up, or I might break a few ribs this time!"

"You will do no such thing, soldier."

Phos gave a start, but quickly composed himself again and turned to face the holographic projection of Iridia beside the cell's door. "So you bugged its room, huh?" he said pointedly.

Matt remembered having to relieve himself in the empty box the Desians had left him and suddenly felt all too exposed.

"Naturally," the projection answered. "If the subject comes to any harm, we need to know. Choking on its food, attempts of suicide... unruly guards... we need to be ready to intervene."

"For the last time, I'm not a guard!" Phos snapped. "I've been a soldier for three years now - a fighter, not some prisoner's babysitter or scientist's butler! This job is beneath me!" He ended his little tirade with an aptly-placed expletive.

Iridia's only outward response to this outburst was to raise an eyebrow.

 _Wow, that thing shows a lot of detail,_  Matt realized. He caught himself and promptly shut down that train of thought.

"If I understand your situation rightly," Iridia stated slowly, "you're still subject to the orders of your superiors, and your immediate superior put you under  _my_  command for the duration of this experiment. Is that accurate?"

"Captain Dar-"

" _Is that accurate?_ "

Phos' boot tapped the floor more rapidly, and his hand gripped the pommel of his sword. Matt half-expected him to erupt like a volcano at the slightest disturbance.

"That's accurate," he finally conceded grudgingly.

Iridia nodded once. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you of standard practice for dealing with insubordination. Give the subject an additional two hours in here before taking it outside." Her blank gaze shifted to Matt (who reflexively shrank back) and his untouched food tray. "Make life easier on us all and feed yourself."

With that, the projection winked out.

Phos cursed again and kicked the food tray in Matt's general direction. "Should have just cut your throat when I first found you."

Matt bristled at this, and his frustration bubbled up to the surface as Phos stepped out of the room. "Yeah," he called out resentfully as he looked down at his food, "you should have."

He did not see it, but this briefly gave the Desian pause before the door was shut. He was left alone once again. He reluctantly picked off a piece of the gray lump on his tray and put it in his mouth.

Once he had swallowed it, he coughed profusely and nearly gagged. It tasted of rancid fish oil.

* * *

Two hours later, Phos returned to escort Matt to the ranch's exterior. The pain in his side had faded quickly, and while the rest of him still hurt, he was able to stand on his own this time - albeit unsteadily.

The going was slow, to Matt's relief; he was not eager to find out what was waiting for him outside. Still, even discounting the pain he was in, the ranch was beginning to weigh heavily on him. The smell of the Desians' cleaning solvent clung to everything it touched; his clothes were not quite warm enough for the climate-controlled air inside the facility; he was given precious little water and food (which, even so, left a horrendous aftertaste); the scientists in the lab had kept him mostly isolated so far, and did not really speak to him themselves; possibly worst of all, they still insisted on referring to him in impersonal terms: "the subject," "the freak," " _it_."

_I don't know how long I can last in here... Please, just get me out..._

His shuffling bare footfalls and Phos' heavier steps echoed off the walls of the teleporter chambers as they went. Matt made a feeble attempt to memorize the path they took, but as before, there was no apparent rhyme or reason to it, and it was simply too long for him to remember every turn they took. Unlike the previous time, however, the way was practically deserted.

At last, however, they reached the end of the teleporters and arrived at the hallways leading to the entrance. As they got closer, Matt realized he had no idea how long it had been since he had been outside.

 _At least one day_ , he eventually decided.  _Maybe two. I'm not sure..._

They approached what appeared to be a dead end, getting closer and closer to it until Matt idly wondered if Phos would simply shove him into the wall. When they came within approximately three feet of it, however, the surface split down the middle and retreated into the walls on either side, flooding the corridor with sunlight. Momentarily blinded, Matt stumbled outside as Phos pushed him forward. His feet left the cold hard flooring and were met with tough, dead grass blades. He looked around, blinking as his eyes adjusted. Once they did, he froze, his heart sank, and a wave of nausea washed over him.

With everything he had endured in his isolation, he had all but forgotten exactly where he was.

Men, women, and children, all wearing sackcloth and without shoes like him, trudged about the massive yard. Each was either working at some laborious task or moving to begin another. Some pushed enormous blocks of stone, some carried smaller such pieces, and others shoveled dirt and rock out of ditches. A few walked upright and wore stony expressions, giving off an air of confidence and defiance. The very youngest ones went about their jobs with tears streaming down their faces in silent cries. The vast majority were markedly paler and thinner and covered in grime, and they went with bent backs and empty, downcast eyes.

Desians with bullwhips looked on. Although Matt could not see it, every single one of them was bored and irritated with their work. All he saw was the result; whenever one of the prisoners faltered, the nearest overseer lashed out at them, whipping them across the back and ordering them to hurry up. There was hardly a prisoner's shirt that had no blood-stained rips in it, and every last one was covered in simple stitches.

Unable to watch, unable to look away, Matt's gaze whipped about, darting from face to gaunt face, from back to bent, striped back.

_What... why... what's going on here?!_

He would have stayed there, dumbstruck and horrified, for a while longer had Phos not pushed him again.

"Come on, move it!" the half-elf barked. "You're out here for eight hours' worth of work, and the sooner you get done, the less time I have to be out here."

And so Phos marched him through the yard as he gawked at the people they passed. Most kept their attention on their own tasks. Only a few looked back at him. Gone were the surprise, curiosity, and confusion he had come to expect at the sight of his old clothes. Not surprising, since those clothes were gone now. What caught him off-guard was the time an elderly man digging a ditch locked eyes with him, and his already bleak expression became even more miserable.

That man, not knowing what he had been through but knowing full well what he was about to go through, pitied him.

Matt quickly decided that did not bode well.

"What are you doing here, Phos?" an irritated voice asked.

Matt looked where he was going again; Phos had taken him to a work table set up in the shade of the sole tree growing within the ranch's outer walls. Several Desian overseers were crowded around it, poring over an assortment of architect paper and letter-size documents; one of them, the one who had spoken, wore a more ornate uniform than the others.

"I'm following orders," Phos answered gruffly, and Matt gasped a little as he pushed him forward another step. "Kvar's pets downstairs want this one put to work for a while. Eight hours, they said."

And once again, Matt was the center of attention. He stared pointedly at the papers set out on the desk as the Desians murmured and whispered about his apparently-strange mana signature. One of the pages was dominated by a large and complex data table; the other appeared to be a map, with small, brightly-colored figurines positioned on it.

"The freak?" the foreman wondered aloud; his use of the word made Matt flinch. "Why would we want it out here? There's no knowing what it might do. And since when do we take orders from Kvar's lab rats?"

Phos actually groaned at this. "Since they started helping Lord Magnius win Lord Yggdrasil's favor and turn this into the most powerful human ranch in the world. If you won't put the freak to work, I'll go back and tell them, and they'll tell Captain Darnal, he'll tell Lord Magnius, and Lord Magnius will come pay you a visit himself." There was a beat of silence during which the overseers looked around at each other, Matt sincerely hoped he would be sent back to his cell for a while longer, and Phos realized something. "Actually, that might not be a bad idea..."

The foreman sighed through his nostrils and pursed his lips. "Can it actually use all that mana?"

_Wait, is that it? I just have more mana than normal?_

"All signs say 'no,'" Phos reassured him.

After one more moment's consideration, the foreman indicated one of the overseers. "Give it a shovel and put it in a ditch. Put it with the..." Here he consulted the data table on his desk. "...cell block 18 prisoners. It can stay there through the next shift change."

The whip-wielding Desian moved to obey, gripping Matt's arm just below the shoulder and making him wince in discomfort.

"As for you, Phos," the foreman continued as Matt was led away, "just stay out of the way and be here to collect the freak when its time is up."

 _If only they were all this friendly to each other_ , Matt griped to himself.

* * *

The shovel blade rang out as it struck yet another rock hidden in the soil.

Matt sighed. His callouses from handling weapons over the previous weeks were still there, but finding stones this way still hurt his hands whenever it happened. Now he would have to spend anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes digging around the stone, dislodging it, and throwing it out of the ditch. It had been oddly satisfying the first few times he had managed it, but the rocky earth had since become a source of misery.

There was no helping it. If he ever stopped moving, he would feel the bite of the whip again. The overseers, he was discovering, had brilliant aim and a long reach with their weapons, able to target a single worker down in the ditch and hit them while standing at ground level, five feet up and about the same distance away. He was already tired and in immense discomfort due to lack of sleep, malnutrition, dehydration, electrocution, previous lashings, and splinters from his shovel's handle.

Matt wearily began probing the ground with his shovel, trying to figure out how big around the rock was.

"You're getting the hang of it," a low voice whispered.

Matt started and his head whipped around to see who had spoken. It was the elderly man he had seen earlier; gray hair and eyes, wrinkly, mottled skin, and somewhat greater emotive power set him apart from the other dirty, thin frames nearby.

A sharp crack over their heads split the air. "Keep moving!" the nearest Desian shouted.

Both of them quickly turned their gazes back to their jobs. It was just as well; looking at the regular prisoners made Matt's stomach churn.

"You can talk while you work," the older man murmured. "Just don't make eye contact, and don't raise your voice."

Matt nodded, and immediately realized the other prisoner would not see it. "OK."

"I haven't seen you before," the elder continued. "Did you just get here?"

"A day or two ago," Matt answered.

"Really? Then this can't be your first time out here. Which cell block are you from?"

"I don't think I'm from a cell block. A couple of goons from a different ranch have been using me as a science project; they keep me in a cell by myself."

"Solitary? That's usually reserved for troublemakers."

Having found the edges of the rock he was digging up, Matt set down his shovel to try and move it by hand. "Really?"

"Yes. They spend days at a time alone, and the others in their cell blocks don't know where in the ranch they might be - the solitary cells are just empty supply closets, after all."

Matt stopped with his fingers wrapped around the stone.  _Supply closet?!_  "How do you know that?"

A bitter chuckle escaped the old man's throat. "I've known a few troublemakers since coming here. Are you sure you didn't do anything to upset the Desians?"

"Don't know. Don't care." Unable to move the rock by hand yet, Matt picked up his shovel again and tried to pry it up. "Every Desian I've met has had something to say about my mana signature, though. They think it makes me... not human, and that they can use me for something. Something to do with these," he said, showing the man the Exsphere on his left hand.

The stone finally broke free of the surrounding dirt, and he dug it out with his bare hands. It turned out to be a bit larger than his head, and was difficult to lift. With a heave, he tried to throw it up to ground level. It crashed into the wall of the ditch, tumbling back down to the bottom with a cascade of dirt.

Matt arched his back and stifled a yelp that turned into a growl as a whip traced a new line of red on his skin. "Cut that out!" the overseer wielding it barked.

Resisting the urge to touch the fresh wound, Matt picked up the stone to try again.

_This thing might break his foot if it landed on him..._

It took more effort not to give it a go than it did to lob the rock out of the ditch after that.

The old man let him pick up his shovel and get back to digging before speaking again. "I don't think I understand, but I hope they don't get what they want from you."

"Yeah, so do I."

A long silence followed, each turning to his own thoughts as they worked alongside the other captives to make the trench bigger. The sun beat down on their backs, causing their skin to become slick with sweat, so that Matt's clothes clung to him, rubbing the open wounds on his back whenever he moved. Eventually, the heat, fatigue, hunger, thirst, and general pain got the better of him. His head began to feel light, as if it were floating along, and he found himself unable to focus his eyes on anything.

He shook his head to try and clear it, and he scooped out another shovelfull of dirt, followed by another, and another, and another...

* * *

There was the shock of cold water on Matt's face, and his eyes snapped open.

A Desian stood over him, features dark against the bright sky behind him, pouring the contents of a canteen onto him.

"Go on," the Desian said curtly, "drink up before it's gone."

Realizing what the overseer meant, Matt quickly tried to catch as much water in his mouth as he could.

There was a noise in the background. It did not matter at the moment; he was thirsty and needed water. He kept drinking until the last drops fell from the lip of the canteen.

A nearby voice jeered: "Now  _that's_  using your mouth!"

The sounds became louder. Able to focus again, Matt looked around to figure out what it was.

Several Desians had gathered around the trench. They were all laughing.

Matt's already-burned ears and face heated further when he realized why.

"All right," the half-elf who had woken him shouted, "back to work."

The gathered overseers dispersed, still snickering to each other.

"You passed out," the old man told Matt as the latter glumly picked up his shovel to start digging again, still very much parched. "Happens to the best of us."

"That's not saying much, though, is it?" Matt sighed.

"I suppose not," came the sad reply.

Not five seconds passed before another voice was raised. " _Got you!_ "

The sounds of a scuffle echoed across the yard, and all paused in their work to see what it was; Matt was more than tall enough to see over the top of the trench to level ground and catch what was happening.

Before he could get his bearings, a man-shape came hurtling into the trench and nearly crashed into his digging companion.

Matt had just enough time to realize it was, in fact, another prisoner before a Desian jumped into the trench after him, landing with his boots on the fallen man's arms.

" _AUGH!_ "

"This'll teach you!" the Desian seethed, and he backhanded the captive across the face. The blow made an unpleasant cracking noise that was nearly drowned out by the man's cry of pain, and it left him dazed with blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

Matt recoiled at the sight and the sound.  _That had to have taken out some teeth, at the very least..._

The overseer leaned down as if to whisper something to the man, but instead shouted directly at him for all to hear.

"You can  _not_  pull one over on us, you inferior being! You're less than dirt - you're  _trash!_  Complete  _garbage!_  You're lucky we don't throw you away right now for that, you got that?!"

The man gave no answer except a low groan; the side of his face was already swelling up.

Matt's temper started doing something similar. His shovel hand shook, and he forgot everything except for that Desian and the abused prisoner.

 _He can't do that...!_  One step in their direction, however, and the old man's arm whipped out to the side to stop him.

So he could only watch, fuming, as the half-elf flipped over the stunned man, pocketed the three teeth that fell out of his mouth, and jumped back out of the trench with him over his shoulder.

"What was that about?" Matt growled once things had returned to normal again.

"If you stand up to them," the elder breathed, "they'll beat you down until you can't stand again."

"Not that... but... thanks. What did that guy even do?"

"I can't say for sure. He has family in another cell block, though. He must have tried to go see them while the guards were distracted."

"That's... disgusting. How can they do that to people?!"

"I don't know. It might be that they actually  _do_  see us as inferior."

Matt had no answer to this. The things he was witnessing that day were heaping coals onto a fire sparked by Magnius' actions back in Palmacosta.

_... What can I do about it?_

It was not a rhetorical question.

* * *

Unfortunately, Matt's own troubles reasserting themselves into his life had a tendency to push the problems of others to the back of his mind.

After a few more hours, the shift changed, and the old man and those with him were taken away, only to be replaced with a new group - presumably from a different cell block. Matt did not find any among them who had been as talkative as the old man, to his disappointment.

_I wish I'd gotten that guy's name._

Eventually, Phos came to escort him back to the lab. Thankfully, he was not in for more electrical shocks this time; Kolter simply used a Key Crest to remove his Exsphere and had him sent back to his cell.

Well, his supply closet. He realized that this was the first time he was being sent back while he was fully in possession of his faculties, and indeed, the cell was nothing more than a closet behind a nondescript (albeit locked) door in an ordinary hallway.

His food and water were already waiting for him when Phos shoved him into the cell... along with a ragged square of fabric that was visibly crawling with mites. He realized this sorry excuse for a pillow must be the scientists' version of making him more comfortable in return for his "cooperation." He quietly elected to ignore it when he laid down to sleep after his dinner. The memories from working in the yard were still fresh in his mind, and he had a newfound resolve he intended to face the next day with.

That resolve went out the window the second Phos opened the door to take him back to the lab the next morning.

That day went much the same as the one before. Iridia and Kolter electrocuted him mercilessly; he was equipped with another Exsphere and sent back to his cell for another short rest; he was taken outside to work for eight hours. His physical and mental state, already in shambles from the previous day, deteriorated rapidly, so that in all respects except weight, it seemed like he had been at the ranch for three weeks rather than three days.

Not  _everything_  was the same, however. The electrical shocks hurt far more that day than they had before, due to the damage caused the last time. The lab testing was halted much more abruptly, though, and Iridia was even more uptight than usual at the end of it. Additionally, Matt was assigned to pushing blocks instead of digging, alongside two different groups he had not seen until then. This was by far the worse of the two jobs. While the digging was repetitive and physically taxing, the stone blocks were incredibly heavy and difficult to move. He managed for approximately half an hour before his limbs started to give out, bringing the wrath and ridicule of the overseers down on his back. At one point, three of them ganged up on him at once, laying open his shirt and skin with each swing of their whips, and leaving him curled up and trembling on the ground when they were finished.

He was constantly hungry, thirsty, and tired; his muscles ached and his nerves were shot; his mouth was dry, his stomach gurgled, and his back felt like it was on fire. He hardly noticed when the Desians abused the other captives, and when he did, his anger was outweighed twofold. He was in too much physical discomfort to hold onto it, and it was tempered by the fact that he could do  _nothing_  to stop it.

This should give you an idea of Matt's condition at the end of that second full day as a Desian research project. He was not breaking all at once, like he had imagined would happen; he was starting to crumble, slowly, agonizingly, and he knew it. In desperation, he turned back to the one thing that might yet see him through.

_You see what's happening... You KNOW what's going on here... Please, save us from this... Save us all from this place..._

No perceivable answer came. Not that he had really expected one.

_I wish I had a Bible here. Or even my music. I really need to hear from y-_

His eyes widened at a sudden recollection, followed by a heavy sigh.

_My music. That's what that thing I gave Raine was. My MP3 player. I... guess it's just as well I gave it to her. The Desians probably would have taken it from me anyway._

With that, Matt lay down to go to sleep again, too tired to resist the ghost plaguing his dreams.

* * *

As similar as these two days were, though, the following morning was altogether different.

Matt woke to the sound of the closet-cell doors opening.

_No, no, not again..._

Before he could do anything, Phos had him under the arms and was pulling him to his feet rather than making him get up himself, as he had before.

"Wha..." he tried to ask.

"Lord Magnius has called for you," the soldier told him hurriedly, half-dragging him out of the room. "We're not keeping him waiting."

_...Aw, no._

Phos did not let up his speed whether he was pulling his prisoner along or simply escorting him. Matt tried to keep up, if only because walking hurt slightly less than being dragged through the ranch.

He racked his brain on the way to Magnius' office, trying to find a reason for this summons; none was apparent. He had not made himself a nuisance - not intentionally, at any rate.  _It must be something with the experiment, then... Unless he just doesn't have a reason. What do I know?_

All too soon, they had arrived at the end of the teleporter hallway and the entrance to Magnius' office.

 _God, help me,_  he prayed as they stepped onto the teleporter.

A flash of light and a falling sensation later, Matt blinked and looked around at his surroundings.

The office was a bit more crowded than it had been before. Aside from Magnius himself, Captain Darnal was already there, along with Kolter and Iridia, holding some kind of council in the middle of the room. All turned to see the newcomers as they materialized before them.

The Grand Cardinal folded his arms and grinned at their arrival. "Good, it's here!"

Against his own better judgment, Matt gave him a glare in answer.

Magnius ignored him and returned his attention to the two scientists. "Now, you two leave us for now."

Kolter slowly stepped toward the teleporter, as if reluctant, while Iridia stood rooted in place, hidden eyes locked with Magnius'.

"You might work for Kvar," Magnius said smugly, "but as long as you're in my ranch, you'll do as I say."

"Yes. Lord. Magnius," Iridia answered, as though each word was the stroke of a sword. With that, she spun on her heel and followed her colleague through the teleporter and out of the office.

Magnius relaxed and ambled over to his sofa, where he sat down with a slouch.

Unsure how he was supposed to respond, Matt looked around the spacious room again before speaking up. "Uh... what's this about?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Magnius said, and cued Phos to bring him closer. "It's your lucky day, you freak. Those two lab rats just told me you're not the ideal Exsphere research subject we thought you could be."

Matt immediately forgot about the incorrect application of the term "lab rat" and panicked for a split second. If he was no longer useful, there was no knowing what the Desians would do with him. They might well kill him-

_Hold on. That might be better than being kept here..._

"With that in mind," Magnius continued, "I've decided we can let you go on your freakish way now."

For a solid three seconds once the words had registered, Matt wondered what they might actually have meant before daring to consider the obvious.

"Wait... what? Just like that?"

The half-elf leaned forward in his seat and stared intently at him. The scars on his face clashed somewhat with his grin. "Just like that. All I need from you before we can do that is to know where you came from."

Matt's hopes came crashing down at this condition. "What? Why?"

"So we can take you back there, of course! Freaks like you shouldn't be alone among human vermin, after all. We can't send you just anywhere."

The Grand Cardinal was smiling at him, as though he had said nothing offensive. The look in his eyes, however, set Matt on edge.

He had seen it before. Lloyd got something like it in the moment of battle when he knew he was one move away from triumph.

Concerning though it was, he would have hesitated but for a moment before agreeing if Magnius had asked for most anything he had the power to give.

"...Can't you just take me back to Palmacosta?"

Magnius' mouth twitched. "You're not from Palmacosta. We need to know where you're from so we can get you there."

Matt looked down at his feet. "I... don't know  _where_  I'm from. I was trying to figure it out when..."  _When you kidnapped me and murdered the others._  Finishing that thought out loud seemed like a bad idea.

He heard the Cardinal stand up again; when he glanced back up, his smile was gone. "You don't know? I don't believe you."

"I don't!" Matt insisted. "I hit my head and forgot almost everything!"

The silence was palpable as Magnius stared him down. Matt resisted the urge to look away; he held his gaze, trying to show that he was being honest.

Finally, Magnius sat down again. "I don't think I believe you, freak. But it doesn't really matter."

Matt blinked. "What?"

"Lord Magnius..." Captain Darnal began.

"The lab rats said you're not an  _ideal_  subject," the Cardinal said darkly, ignoring his subordinate. "You'll still suffice. Darnal, get ready to take the freak to Lord Yggdrasil."

Had Matt known what would have awaited him in Welgaia that day, the thought of being taken to Magnius' leader would have scared him stiff. As it was, the very name Yggdrasil echoed ominously in his ears as his imagination ran wild with the possibilities of what might happen next. What was actually coming, however, even Magnius would not have considered.

Just as Darnal had taken hold of Matt's arm and started leading him to the teleporter, the device whirred to life.

Magnius cursed and rose to his feet again. "I told them never to come in here without my permission!" he roared.

It was not Iridia and Kolter, though, who were invading his inner sanctum. Four figures materialized on the teleporter pad, and Matt's heart practically leapt up to his throat.

"Lloyd! Colette! Kratos!"


	15. Jailbreak

_Earlier..._

On the platform leading to Magnius' office, Iridia and Kolter held a brief council together, ignoring the two guards who brought one of the prisoners into the chamber.

"That brute wants all the credit for the discovery of this species for himself!" the female scientist fumed. "Without us, he'd have no knowledge of it beyond its mana signature!"

"It's a pity communications are still down," Kolter lamented. "Lord Kvar would never stand for this."

Iridia balked at her colleague. "You don't seriously believe that to be an accident, do you? He's been trying to keep the experiment a secret!"

Kolter nodded. "It...  _did_  seem like a suspicious coincidence. What can we do about it?"

"You remember how to maintain and operate com's equipment, don't you?"

"I do."

"Then we'll beat Magnius at his own game. There's a skirmish working its way into the ranch; his men will be busy. You go to the communications room and find a way to get us through to Lord Kvar. I'll go down to the lab to collect our data and the Exspheres; any claims about the subject will be completely baseless without them. We might have to make a run for it, so-"

There was a sudden commotion, and the two scientists turned to see a group of five people exiting the teleporter. One of them was wanted criminal 0074.

Kolter and Iridia both went white as a sheet, and they promptly made a mad dash for the exit teleporter. Kratos spotted them out of the corner of his eye, and he froze and stared blankly at them until they were out of the room.

* * *

The collective party could hardly believe their ears.

"Matt's  _here?!_ " Lloyd exclaimed.

Chocolat nodded once. "He was in my tour group, and the Desians brought him here with me," she explained quickly.

Raine recovered from the news first. "Then he should have been with the other prisoners," she observed. "Why didn't we see him?"

"I haven't seen him since we got here," the tour guide confessed, "but he's definitely here somewhere. The Desians kept talking about him like there was something weird about him, and there's been a rumor going around about a prisoner getting experimented on in a lab somewhere in the ranch."

"If he's here, we have to find him!" Colette asserted.

Kratos shook his head. "There's not enough time. Right now, we need to get to the control room to ensure the other prisoners get out safely. The longer we wait to do that, the more likely they are to be re-captured or killed."

Genis threw up his hands. "Then what do we do? We can't just abandon either of them, can we?"

Lloyd clenched his fists. "No! We can't, and we won't have to if we split up!"

Kratos folded his arms. "Send one group to find Matthew and have the other make for the control room? That would not be wise."

"Why not?" the three teens asked in unison.

"There are only five of us," the mercenary answered. "No matter how we divide our strength, one of the groups will have only two members. That's not enough to offer much safety."

Raine concluded a mental debate with herself and made up her mind. "Genis and I will search for Matthew. The rest of you head for the control room."

The others' reactions ranged from surprise to skepticism.

"Professor?" Lloyd wondered, aware of the tensions between Raine and their missing friend.

"Professor Sage, are you sure?" Kratos asked. "Neither of you is trained in physical combat. You both specialize in magic. You won't be able to fight your way to the lab."

"We won't need to," Raine answered. "We can sense them by their mana signatures; we'll detect any Desians approaching before they notice us."

Genis tilted his head. "Huh? Raine, we-"

"Besides, we're elves," she continued. "They'll be less likely to attack us on sight if we go without you. Furthermore, they're looking for the Chosen. She'll be safer with you two than with either of us. Need I go on?"

Kratos took the briefest of moments to think it over. "Very well. If you don't find him in the next half hour, meet us in the control room. That should be enough time for the captives to escape."

"I'm not certain if it's the control room," Chocolate offered, "but at the back of this passageway is a room full of sparkling lights and other magical-looking things."

Raine nodded. "Then that's where we'll go once we're done searching. Let's go, Genis."

"Good luck, Professor," Lloyd said somberly as the two elves ran off.

* * *

"Where are we going, Raine?" Genis asked his sister once they had left the teleporter hallway. "We don't know where this lab place is." He had to sprint to keep up with her jogging pace; thankfully, his youthful energy did not fail him.

"That's why we're going to need a map," the professor answered. "I believe we passed a room with a computer terminal when we first entered the ranch, so that's where we're going to look."

"But that was fifteen minutes ago!" Genis protested. "We won't have time to find him and rejoin the others!"

"We were fighting our way through last time, and we stopped to free the prisoners. It shouldn't take as long this ti-"

"And that's another thing," Genis remembered, skidding to a halt. "You told the others we could sense the Desians' mana long before they reach us," he continued once Raine stopped. His expression hardened. "That was a lie."

Raine's eyes narrowed in turn. "Genis, I asked you not to-"

"I haven't actually checked anyone's mana signatures" he interrupted. "But I know you can't actually sense them until they're right there in front of you. We're gonna get caught if we do this!"

"No," Raine negated. "We have no greater element of surprise than the Desians have, that's true. Our advantage lies in that most of them will be more reluctant to attack one of us than they would be if we were human."

"Unless we run into any human Desians," Genis countered.

"If that happens, we can-"

"Hold it!"

The two siblings turned to see a lone Desian overseer approaching them, reaching for the crossbow on his back.

Genis' eyes widened, and he reached for his kendama.

He stopped the motion when he felt Raine's familiar touch on his shoulder. "Follow my lead," she whispered. "Finally!" she said, raising her voice.

Genis hesitantly put his hand back down to his side.

The Desian paused for an instant, and then resumed his approach. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, flexing his trigger finger without pointing the weapon at them.

"What are  _we_  doing here?" Raine echoed, folding her arms. "I should be asking  _you_  where you've been. We've been waiting for our escort to return for the past quarter hour."

"Escort?"

"We were sent here to inspect the laboratory," Raine claimed. "Our escort got called away as he was taking us there. We were told he would be back shortly, but..." she gestured vaguely to the empty hallway, giving off an air of frustration and annoyance.

The Desian arbalist tensed up, simultaneously relaxing his grip on his crossbow. "Oh! My, er, apologies, inspectors. Lady Pronyma sent you at a... bit of a bad time."

Genis, having caught on, decided to try his hand at the act. "A bad time, huh?" he ventured. "Should we include that in our report to Lady Pronyma?"  _Oh, no, I hope I pronounced that right._

"No, no!" the crossbowman exclaimed, shouldering his weapon and holding his hands up. "It's nothing Lord Magnius and the Desians of the Eastern Ranch can't deal with. I'll take you down to the lab myself. Actually," he clarified as he began leading the way, "it's not Pronyma's fault that this inspection came as a surprise. Communications going into and out of the ranch have been down for a couple of days. If anyone's tried to reach us in that time, we have no way of knowing."

"Fascinating," Raine snorted. "We're not here to listen to excuses. We're here to see that the laboratory is in working order."

"I haven't been down there myself," the siblings' guide admitted, "but I've heard that it's actually usable now. Those scientists from the Asgard ranch really know what they're doing."

"We'll be the judge of that. How much further is it?"

"It won't be long now."

Genis quietly shook his head as the Desian led them through the corridors and teleporters deeper into the ranch. Watching his sister work was fascinating, but also mildly unsettling.

* * *

For the second time in the past five minutes, Lloyd recoiled in surprise.

"Matt, you're here!"

At the sudden appearance of his friends, a rush of emotions flowed through Matt: disbelief and elation at the thought that rescue was imminent; fear and worry that things might yet go very, very wrong; and, last and most persistently, shame.

Before he could think of what to say, Magnius found his own tongue. "So the forsaken Chosen and her entourage of vermin have arrived." He sat down lazily on his seat, and it rose steadily into the air. "That's what I get for not keeping a closer eye on you."

Kratos blinked. "For...saken?"

"What do you mean, keeping an eye on us?" Colette wondered.

Magnius' scowl turned to a grin. There it was again, the look of a man who believes the battle is already won. "What I mean is, I knew you were coming!"

Right on cue, the teleporter started up again, rapidly admitting a battalion of Desians into the control room, wielding whips, swords, staves, and crossbows. They formed a ring around the trespassers, brandishing their various weapons while Lloyd, Colette, and Chocolat frantically glanced about.

"We're surrounded!"

Matt's heart sank as more Desians entered - ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty of them - and Darnal pulled him away from the growing crowd.  _I was afraid of this..._

The Grand Cardinal laughed as the last of his men fell into place. "Stupid vermin! I can see everything that happens in my ranch! I even know about those inferior beings trying to escape."

_Escape?_

A holographic screen appeared between Magnius and everyone else in the room, and to Matt's shock, he saw Neil leading a column of captives through one of the ranch's hallways. Even as he processed the fact that Dorr's second-in-command was at the ranch and that a massive jailbreak was underway, remotely-controlled doors closed in front of and behind the escapees, trapping them.

"Oh, no!" Colette cried out.

Magnius unleashed another cackle. "A wasted effort! Everything you've done is meaningless!"

Lloyd took a half-step forward, fists clenched. "No it's not! We found our friend again, and once we take care of you, we're getting him and the other prisoners out of here!"

_They... DO still count me as a friend, after all that..._

This threat only served to amuse Magnius further. "Friend? Ha! That kind of ignorance caused the disaster at Iselia!"

Stinging as that remark was, Lloyd was too confused to dwell on it. "Ignorance? Wait - what are you talking about?" He, Colette, Kratos, and even Chocolat all took their attention off Magnius to look at Matt, with varying combinations of worry and scrutiny.

"Fine, then. I'll just spell it out for you inferior beings," Magnius grunted. Despite his reluctant tone, his smirk showed he was somehow enjoying this. "That freak only  _looks_  like a human. Its mana signature does, too, thanks to those lab rats downstairs. But it's not a human. It doesn't even need mana to survive.  _This_  is something completely different. I wouldn't be surprised if it came from a different world."

Seeing that look in his friends' eyes made him momentarily forget the dire straits they were all in; the thought that they might actually believe Magnius, and that he could lose their trust and sympathy as a result, created a tight feeling in his chest.

Those things the Grand Cardinal was saying were not actually true... were they?

* * *

"You'll find the lab right through this teleporter here."

"Good," Raine acknowledged, not bothering to even look at their guide. "We'll take it from here. You're dismissed. Let's go, Genis."

The elf-boy watched the Desian retreating the way they had come before following his sister through the teleporter and into the lab.

His immediate impression of the place, once he entered, was dull and drab, the stacks of containers positioned around the room making it feel cluttered and incomplete. The equipment that was in place, though, quickly told him an unsettling story - namely, the up-tilted table, with wires connecting it to various nearby machines, and scratch marks beside its sparsely-padded restraints.

Genis shuddered. "What did they do to him in here?" he wondered aloud as Raine forged ahead for a closer look.

"More importantly, where is he now?" she countered. Even as she said it, however, her gaze fell on a computer monitor idling on a nearby desk, and she made for it. Finding the console the screen was connected to, she began navigating the system, fingers a blur, opening and closing files faster than she could possibly read them.

Before Genis could ask what she was doing, a door they had overlooked hissed open and Raine froze. A voice called out:

"Kolter? That was fast. I thought we were going to meet outside." A purple-haired Desian in a lab coat and opaque goggles emerged, making a beeline for a metal briefcase sitting on a counter. "I've reported our findings to..." The words died on her tongue as she realized it was not her colleague she was addressing.

 _Wuh-oh._  Genis put one hand behind his back and grasped the handle of his kendama as Iridia rapidly glanced back and forth between him and Raine, caught red-handed at the computer.

"Who are you? What are you doing down here?! That's my computer! There's confidential information stored in it!"

Raine resumed inputting commands and answered without looking at the scientist. "We heard you've been experimenting on one of our friends. I want to know what you've learned about him."

The young warlock was rendered momentarily dumbstruck. "What?! Raine, we don't have time for this! We need to find him and get back to the others!"

Iridia rallied herself at Genis' outburst, and she dashed for the briefcase on the counter. "Magnius is already trying to steal the subject from us!" she shouted. "I won't let you traitors try as well!" With that, she sprinted toward the teleporter, lab coat billowing behind her.

She was only halfway there when Genis drew out his kendama. "Lightning!"

The purple spark struck her, and she fell to the floor with a cry. She dropped the briefcase, and it skidded out of her reach.

Keeping his kendama in-hand, Genis ran to the case and knelt beside it, wrinkling his nose at the smell of singed hair and skin, while Raine continued her search. At last, she found what she had been looking for.

* * *

May 25

An Exsphere research candidate has been sent to us from Lord Magnius. Comprehensive physical examination reveals traits consistent with a human male. Mana signature is amorphous and fluid, not unlike that of a Summon Spirit, and is exceptionally powerful. Mana is contained by physical body; no other apparent connection between the two. Soldier responsible for capturing it claims its mana increases when it consumes food; requires confirmation. Evidence sufficient to dub it a previously undiscovered species. Dubbing candidate Subject #0075.

UPDATE: Electrical shock to the subject causes its mana to react. Will administer shocks of varying power, potential difference, current, resistence, and duration, and record observations.

Subject's immune system is sensitive to cleaning solvent. Administered antihistamine injection to prevent further reactions.

* * *

_Electrical shocks? What did that do to him?_

Having reached the end of this file, Raine closed it and opened the next one, while Genis figured out how to open Iridia's briefcase.

"Raine! There are Exspheres and a Key Crest in here!" he shouted.

"No!" Iridia protested weakly. "Those are the results of our research! You can't have them!"

* * *

May 26

Commenced electrical shock testing on Subject 0075. Found that increases in overall power of shocks increase response of subject's mana (see Note 5/26 A for detailed results). Mana appears to be bonding with physical body with every shock. All attempts to undo this effect progress it further. Calling off today's testing early to hold another Exsphere trial.

UPDATE: Exsphere trial success. In eight hours, it has absorbed mana equivalent of three months of culturing on a standard host. No apparent adverse effects on Subject 0075.

* * *

Raine's gut twisted as she read this.  _Absorbing mana? Is that how Exspheres are made? And what's this about Matthew's mana bonding to his body?_

Skipping over that day's note, she proceeded to the entry for the following day.

Genis closed and picked up the briefcase, then got up to stand over Iridia as she tried to get back to her feet. "Where are you keeping Matt?" he demanded, pointing the wooden toy in his hand at her.

The scientist's strained expression contorted further in confusion. "You call it by name?" she gasped through clenched teeth. "But... you're one of us. If you saw it before it came here, you know it's not what it appears to be!"

His brow wrinkled. "What are you talking about? Raine, what's she talking about?"

* * *

May 27

Disaster. Complete disaster.

Bonding of Subject 0075's mana to its body increased exponentially during today's testing. Bonding was near completion before we knew what was happening. Mana signature now fully resembles that of a human. Body still does not process mana. Will conduct another Exsphere trial before deciding on further action.

UPDATE: Subject 0075 now yields mana at the same rate as a standard host. Further attempts to reverse bonding discouraged. Recommend seeking out others of its kind for further testing. Failing that, we estimate that in its current state, 0075 can yield over one hundred activated Exspheres before expiring of old age, given average human lifespan. Will give report and recommendations to Magnius in the morning. Awaiting communications restoration to forward information to Lord Kvar.

* * *

Disconcerting as this new information was, Raine's curiosity was satisfied for the time being. She left the computer terminal with the file open and rejoined Genis to question Iridia.

"I know he's different," she conceded solemnly, compounding Genis' perplexity. "I was with him for weeks before he was brought here, so I also know he's not  _that_  different. Regardless, we're not going to leave him here for you to have your way with him." The professor leveled her staff at the scientist. "So we ask again: where is he?"

Iridia glowered at the both of them. "Magnius is a scoundrel, but you two are traitors to your race." She lowered her head, grunting in pain. "Fine, then. Magnius has it in his office. If you want it so much, see if you can steal it from him."

With a swing so hard he felt a twinge of pain in his shoulder, Genis sent the wooden ball of his kendama flying toward Iridia's head. She collapsed flat on the floor on impact.

"You're a half-elf," he said darkly. "You ought to know better than to call people 'it.'"

Raine nodded. "Now, let's get back to the others. They may need our help." So she led the way out of the lab, quickly trying to decide just how much of what she had just learned needed to be known by their companions.

Except for Iridia, still unconscious, the room was abandoned and completely silent for about a minute before the room's holocom switched on, and an image of Rodyle surveyed the disheveled laboratory.

The projection chuckled to itself as he remotely navigated Iridia's computer. "Now then, what have you been trying to hide, Magnius... Hmm... Well, well,  _well!_  What have we here?"

* * *

Lloyd shook his head, steeling himself against his own barrage of questions. "Right now, it doesn't matter what he is or isn't. What matters is that we're not leaving without him, or the rest of the prisoners!"

As grateful as Matt was for this reasoning of Lloyd's, he got the distinct impression that, should they escape with their lives, he would be pressed for answers he did not have. Not the best of prospects, but he was prepared to face it rather than stay another day in the ranch or, worse, be carted off to Magnius' boss.

The Grand Cardinal's booming gloating snapped him out of his reverie: "Just like Marble!"

 _Wha... Marble, Genis' friend?_  He realized he had missed some important conversation.  _Ugh, I gotta stop spacing out._ He craned his neck to see past the Desians surrounding his friends. Lloyd was nearly foaming at the mouth with anger and worry, Colette was watching him with concern, Kratos kept his cold eyes on Magnius, and Chocolat... had gone slack-jawed.

"Marble?" he heard her breathe. "You don't mean..."

Pieces of Matt's newer memories clicked into place: the story Lloyd had told him on Max's boat, Chocolat's missing grandmother, and the name of her family's store:  _Marble's_.

_Oh, no..._

All eyes were now on the distressed girl.

"No!" Colette cried. "That's not what happened! Lloyd wanted to save her from the Desians, but they turned her into a monster, and-"

"Lloyd killed her," Magnius concluded, satisfied with the mischief he had sown.

Chocolat slowly turned to face Lloyd, eyes wide in disbelief. "No..." she murmured, and she took a hesitant step back, and then another, and then one more, right into the hands of two Desians who had sheathed their weapons.

"Chocolat!" Colette would have run to her aid had Kratos not taken hold of her shoulder.

Lloyd swore at the half-elves and drew his swords. "Let her go!" he demanded, taking a deliberate step forward. Chocolate, however, only backed up another step, and her shock gave way to a fiery, venomous glare.

"Leave me alone! I refused to be saved by Grandma's murderer! I'd rather die!"

Lloyd flinched as if he had been struck. There it was again, that look of utter contempt that had positively surrounded him the day Iselia was attacked, searing itself in his mind to remind him of the destruction he had inadvertently brought down on them. It was no easier to take from a relative stranger than it had been to take from the faces from his childhood.

"Are you insane?!" Matt erupted, ignoring Darnal's tightening grip as he tried to pull away. Chocolat's furious gaze turned on him. "You'd rather stay here?! You  _know_  what the Desians do to people! You know what they'll do to  _you!_ "

The look in her eyes softened, but only marginally. She understood what he was trying to do, but she refused to budge. "Dorr will save us. We don't need them," she stated coldly.

Kratos, for his part, was briefly tempted to bash his own head against the nearest wall. Magnius just laughed to himself again. "Right, Dorr. Well, whatever. Take them away!"

Matt's fear rose to the forefront of his mind once again as Darnal jerked him toward the teleporter. Heart racing, he dug his bare heals into the floor the best he could, only succeeding in getting blisters on his feet and slowing the Desian captain down. The teleporter flared to life again as Chocolat, closer to it to begin with, was taken out of the room, offering no resistance to her captors. "Chocolat, no!" he called out as she vanished. Before he could think or do anything else, Darnal swiped at his legs with his staff, making him lose his footing and fall down. "Lloyd! Kratos!" he yelled as he was dragged onward. His vision darkened and narrowed, his hearing became muddled, and a panicked edge creeped into his voice.

Lloyd, meanwhile, had tried to reach the teleporter to overtake Chocolat, but had been cut off by Desian soldiers.

At this point, Kratos firmly decided enough was enough. "Get down," he muttered, grasping the hilt of his sword; his shield had been equipped since entering the ranch. "Chosen, stay behind me. Lloyd, help Matthew."

The two teens nodded in agreement. Lloyd watched the half-elves surrounding them, keeping the mercenary at the edge of his field of vision.

One of the Desians drew back his whip to strike.

"Now! Light Spear!" As Lloyd and Colette ducked down, Kratos drew his blade and seamlessly executed the tech, jumping and spinning with his sword outstretched. The cyclone of energy he created knocked the nearest Desians back into their comrades and blew away a couple of crossbow bolts, all while passing harmlessly over Lloyd and Colette's heads.

Lloyd seized the opening and rushed at Darnal, forcing him to release Matt's arm and defend himself. It was of little use; he was a field commander and a mage, not a physical combatant. The swordsman swept his guard aside and made short work of him.

Matt, meanwhile, scrambled to his feet, pausing to note Darnal's fallen, bloodied body.

"Matthew! Here!" he heard Kratos call.

He shook his head, his mind clearing up, senses returning to normal. Just as he was about to follow Kratos' order, his eyes fell on Darnal's staff, and after only a brief hesitation, he wrenched it from the corpse's hand. Following the bright red of Lloyd's jacket through the pandemonium, he tested the weapon's weight.  _It'll have to do._  "WAAGH!" He stumbled as Lloyd suddenly pulled him to the ground, just in time for an airborne Desian to sail over their heads.

"Go!" Lloyd directed, dashing past the slowly recovering Desians, not bothering to avoid stepping on any who happened to be in his path.

The sight might have disturbed Matt more deeply a week prior. As it was, he did his best to keep up.

At long last, he stood once more with his companions, just as their assailants rallied and began their attack.

Kratos took one quick glance at Matt before focusing on the oncoming horde, just long enough to determine the liberated young man was in no condition to fight this battle. "Stay close and stand back," he instructed.

Had he been in the mindset to process words, Matt would have responded with a dry "Good to see you too, Kratos." At that moment, he was all nerves, alert to what was happening around him, and he was quick to obey the mercenary's order and stand behind him, closer to the wall, taking on a guard stance with the stolen staff, facing the teleporter. Whether he would need to fight - or be  _able_  to fight - or not, he instinctively knew he should at least  _look_  prepared to do so.

And just because  _he_  was the one being rescued did not mean he would be content to present a living target to their enemies and a dead weight to his friends.

Loud clashes rang out behind him as Lloyd and Kratos engaged the Desians, mingling with the sound of Colette's chakrams whirring through the air.

Flesh was torn, and men screamed.

Lloyd gave a loud grunt at some injury, only for his sword strikes to redouble their speed - sometimes connecting with metal, sometimes giving off the wet crunch of a death blow.

Matt listened intently to the battle, the side-to-side sweeping of his eyes slowing to a halt. Even though his incarceration had been relatively short up to this point, it had driven from his mind his reasons for leaving his companions in the first place. The sound of a score of men falling in battle served to remind him; while highway robbers could be deterred, against Desians and the like, they had to fight to kill. To his own muted alarm, the thought did not bother him anywhere near as much as it had the night after the skirmish at Palmacosta.

Then again, the reasons for this were readily apparent. Standing was still more of a pain and a chore than it should have been. His limbs were still heavy with fatigue. Pain still lanced across the stripes on his back whenever he shifted himself. He was still hungry, and thirsty, and tired. It had been days since the word "he" had been directed at him, let alone his own name.

 _And I'm not the only one._  He chanced a glance over his shoulder, past the chaos that was a fight for survival, and to the screen Magnius had summoned. The emaciated figures, as well as Neil, were still trapped, and though Dorr's second-in-command was doing his best to keep everyone calm, most of the others ranged from worried and fidgety to frantically trying to pry open the locked doors. The remaining prisoners simply stayed where they were, unmoving, eyes cast down, already resigned to whatever fate the Desians would concoct for them.

Matt's blood started to boil. Causing another to feel that kind of fear and despair was unacceptable.

His mind was made up.

A sudden movement caught his attention. The teleporter was starting up.

... _More of them?!_

Something hit him and sent him sprawling before he could alert the others, just as a sword's blade struck the spot he had been standing on.

"AGH!" He yelled, partly because his head bouncing against the thinly-padded floor hurt, mostly because it occurred to him how dangerous being down on the floor was in a fight. But try as he might, he could not get up, or even get his staff between himself and potential attackers. Something was pinning him down; even as he began to gather his bearings, that something stirred.

"Oh, no! I'm sorry!"

"Stalagmite!"

"Genis! Professor Sage! You're back!"

_...Oh. They're here too._

Matt shook his head to clear the stars from his vision and propped himself up on his elbows. Colette was literally hovering over him, translucent wings fluttering as she reached for his arm to pull him back to his feet. Raine and Genis were behind her, weapons ready, taking stock of the situation.

"Are you okay, Matt?!" the half-angel asked worriedly.

"Of course he's okay!" Genis asserted as Matt was helped up. "You knocked him out of the way of that Desian, and I made sure he didn't get to attack him again."

This time, Matt found his tongue. "Good to know you're so concerned, Genis. But thank you - both of you," he added, glancing between Colette and the elf-boy.

"But I knocked you down!" Colette lamented, hanging her head, and Matt could have sworn her wings drooped a little as they flapped.

Before he could reassure the girl there was no harm done, he noticed that Raine was staring silently at him, a critical expression on her face.

A booming curse cut off any and all remarks he might have made about that, and he whirled around to see Magnius, still on his flying chair, his earlier nonchalance replaced by unbridled fury.

"How could you idiots allow these inferior beings to defeat you?!" His chair began lowering back down to the floor again, but rather than waiting for it, he jumped down, landing with a thud.

At last, Matt forced himself to follow Raine and Genis' example and see where they stood. A wave of nausea washed over him.

Amazingly, of the thirty Desians who had entered the office to confront Lloyd's group, three remained. With them stood Phos, visibly seething with his sword drawn, and the Grand Cardinal himself, who drew a large battle-axe and an odd shield from a hidden compartment in the side of his chair. That left twenty-seven Desians, plus Darnal, dead on the floor, staining the floor with their blood, sporting various open wounds and detached from various body parts.

_Lloyd and Kratos are... good at this._

A tap on the shoulder drew his attention away just as the discomfort began to fade, and he turned to find himself face to face with Raine. "Huh?"

With no verbal response, she moved her hand from his shoulder to his left hand to pry it off his staff. She surprised him further by quickly affixing a key crest and Exsphere to it. On contact with the lavender-colored stone, he gasped and he went straight as a rod. A surge of energy flooded every corner of his body, not fully eliminating his fatigue, but dulling it to the point he could easily ignore it.  _That didn't happen before..._

Raine gave him no time to recover from the surprise. "By the look of things, you'll need the extra strength just to get out of here alive," she said sternly.

A metallic  _clang_  brought his attention back to Magnius, who had finished arming himself. The Grand Cardinal struck his axe against his shield again, eyes locked with Kratos, matching scowl for scowl. "Fine," he growled, "I'll take care of you myself. Men, kill the Chosen and the other intruders, but take the freak alive!"

Matt gulped, and he looked once again at the gem on his hand, knowing without having to ask that it was one that had been used on him during the experiment.

 _Over my dead body._  His thoughts drifted back to the preceding three days, and his gaze returned to the video feed of the escaping prisoners.  _But I'll settle for yours, Magnius._


	16. Killing Ghosts

There was a breath of tense stillness before the storm broke.

Colette, having taken to the air once again, warily observed the battlefield, already cluttered with the lifeless bodies of their enemies. Like Matt, she took no satisfaction in the conflict. Life is all too short as it is, as she was painfully aware. Why did the Desians have to squander their precious time making others miserable? Even if the half-elves were as long-lived as she had been told, could they not see that death came for all of them? They could do good things with their time, making others' lives better, but instead they were speeding toward their doom by forcing the hands of people like herself and her companions.

The young Chosen closed her eyes and exhaled, and with that breath she put away her compassion, if only for this moment. Her friends were being threatened; she could not have sympathy for their enemies if she was to be of any help to them.

As if the others in the room had been waiting for her to begin, it was the moment she opened her eyes that all hell broke loose.

Kratos and Magnius rushed at each other. The mercenary was quicker; he closed the distance and started slashing at the Cardinal with blinding speed. Magnius, in turn, caught each stroke on his shield and retaliated with a single, slower, heavier swing of his axe. Rather than trying to block the hit, Kratos sidestepped the blow and attacked again before Magnius got the chance.

Meanwhile, three of the other Desians - a soldier, an arbalist, and a sorcerer - converged on Genis and Raine, attempting to rid the party of their support. Up went Raine's force field, and blade, bolt, and fireball alike glanced off harmlessly. With a shout, Lloyd charged the soldier, driving him back, while Colette flung her rings at the crossbowman, zipping through the air to avoid the darts he fired in return. With Genis engaging the Desian mage in a wizard's duel, this all left Raine free to cast healing magic where it was needed.

The only other two living people in the room sized each other up.

Phos had seen Raine equip Matt with an Exsphere and Key Crest, and he eyed them warily. The prisoner he had had to drag halfway from his cell to this room was now standing up straight on its own two feet, wielding a stolen staff as one would wield a spear. This by itself was cause for caution, if not concern. The fire that obviously burned behind its eyes was familiar - he himself had seen it in the mirror more than once over the years - and it was to be expected of anyone who had been made to suffer as it had. However, it was offset, tempered, by something else, something more typical of the prisoners of the ranch, or even some of the newer Desian recruits: apprehension. Uncertainty. The being before him knew exactly what it wanted, but whether it was aware or not, its will was divided on the matter. No matter its newfound strength, no matter its skill, this alone would ensure Phos his victory, because a will at war with itself will always lose to a unified one.

Matt, on the other hand, could only see the lower half of his opponent's face, as usual. Phos' breath was passing through clenched teeth, hissing and growling like a rabid dog. He was absolutely livid about something, that much was obvious. Was it because of the death Kratos, Lloyd, and Colette had wrought on his fellow Desians? That would make sense, but Matt had gotten the idea that Phos was not well-liked by his own comrades.

 _Get ahold of yourself, Matt!_  he suddenly thought to himself.  _It doesn't matter WHY he's mad, it only matters that he's mad. Remember what Kratos is always saying about getting frustrated in battle: it fuels your will to fight, but it also makes you sloppy. Gotta be careful and see if he messes up. And if he does - WHEN he does - I can... I can..._

His thoughts faltered, so he gave the slightest shake of his head to put them away. No more thinking; now was the time for action.

For fighting.

For... killing.

He would have to. If he did not... well, there was a chance one of the others could help - no. If he understood correctly, there were other human ranches around the world, all filled with people suffering needlessly at the Desians' hands. It  _had_  to stop. If he was going to do anything about it, he had to start here. Besides, he could not very well refuse to kill and expect others to kill for his sake. That would make him-

Matt snapped out of his musings just as Phos engaged him, sword raised over his head.

Before he knew what he was doing, he jumped back; he felt the blade just miss his bare toes as it struck the floor.

Phos kept his gaze on his target as he dodged away. "Magnius only said to take you alive," he growled, preparing to attack again. "He didn't say you have to be in one piece!"

Matt only half-heard what the half-elf said; he could feel his eyes bugging out in surprise. He had seen the Desians fight before, and their speed in combat was comparable to Lloyd's and Kratos': too fast for him to follow what was happening, let alone react to it. Somehow, he had just done both. He almost cast a bewildered glance down to his left hand.  _Did the Exsphere really do that?_

He did not get any more time to wonder about it; Phos charged him again, this time with his free hand pulled back in a fist.

A sense of déjà vu flitted across Matt's consciousness just before he jumped aside, finding his resolve again, swung his staff in retaliation.  _CRACK._  The ornamented end caught the half-elf on his back, making him stumble forward with a loud groan.

Unfortunately, by the time Matt thought to follow it up, Phos had recovered. He approached once more, pacing himself this time, walking in an arc towards his left with his sword poised to strike.

 _He's trying to get between me and the others._  Matt began to mirror his movements, doing his best to stay just out of reach as he did so.

Seeing this, Phos changed tactics again, closing in and repeatedly slashing at him and pursuing him whenever he tried to get away.

Try, he did - he was much more sure that he could dodge the sword than that he could block every strike Phos threw at him. Jump right, jump back, jump left, parry, jump back, whatever it took to avoid the bite of steel.

Evidently, Kratos saw this happening. "Matthew!" he heard him shout over the din. "If you don't fight back, they'll take you again!"

Unfortunately, Matt's combat instinct was still developing, and he whipped his head around to look at the mercenary as he spoke. Before he even realized what he had done wrong, he yelped and stumbled back, clutching at a bleeding gash that stretched diagonally across his entire torso.

Phos relaxed when Matt fell over, taking a moment to note the blood that now glistened on the cutting edge of his blade. Wordlessly, still scowling, he reached down for the discarded staff on the floor.

"Angel Feathers!"

The half-elf's attention snapped to the three glowing rings fly toward him. He deflected two of them, but the third clipped his sword hand, and he dropped the blade with a pained grunt. Teeth bared, he glared up at the angel, who had felled the crossbowman and joined Raine in supporting her teammates.

"Matt, get up, quick!" Lloyd cried, having seen what was happening, but having too much trouble with his own opponent to help.

 _Get up? Get up?!_  Matt cracked his eyes open and looked down at his wound. It was not particularly deep, to his surprise, but it was a knuckle-length wide, it stung worse than the lash of a whip, and it was bleeding profusely, quickly turning his prison garb from brown to dark crimson. It occurred to him that the wound might be fatal, and the thought made him feel dangerously cold. "Ugh... Can't," he grunted through clenched teeth. "I-"

"First Aid!"

At Raine's word, several things happened at once. The wound briefly flashed brilliant white, forcing Matt to shut his eyes again. An intense itch paired with a comforting warmth promptly overtook the pain, and then faded just as quickly. When the light was gone, Matt opened his eyes to see that while his clothes and hands were still wet with blood, his skin beneath the cut in his shirt was whole once more.

 _...Wow. So that's healing magic._  Remembering where he was again, he scrambled for his staff and picked himself up, just as Phos retrieved his sword, gripping it in his left hand.

The novelty of being healed quickly wore off, and his close call took away all reservations that had undermined him before. He was  _going_  to bring his opponent down, no holds barred.

He leveled the staff at his enemy, ready to go on the attack this time. "Come on, then!" he growled when Phos continued to keep his distance.

As furious as the half-elf was, he was not ambidextrous, and he was unsure of his ability to fight with his weak arm. Still, using his injured right hand was not an option, nor was backing down. He raised his sword once more and closed in on his target.

Matt lifted his staff in front of him to catch Phos' downward slice. To his mild bewilderment, his enemy leaned toward him with their weapons locked together overhead.

"My cousin is  _dead_  because of you!" he bellowed, trying to push down Matt's staff with his blade. "And now you have the gall to use his staff against me?!"

 _Cousins, huh?_ " _You_  started this!" Matt yelled in response. Then, twisting his staff around before his arms gave out, he struck Phos on the side of the head, his metal helmet ringing at the staff's impact.

" _AH!_ " Phos was sent reeling, shaking his head with his bleeding right hand held to his helm. He got no chance to recover this time. Switching his stance, Matt jabbed him once in the stomach, causing him to drop his sword and double over, and immediately followed up by striking him on the back of the head with the opposite end to drive him closer to the ground. To finish off the combo, Matt lowered his own stance, gripping the lower end of the staff with both hands.

It was at the start of this final swing that he felt something: a twinge in his body, as if he had pulled a muscle or tendon, yet completely painless. A surge of energy, similar to when Raine had equipped him with his Exsphere, flooded his arms and seemed to overflow into his weapon.

He swung the staff up and forward in a large arc.

**_BOOM_ **

The moment the blow connected with Phos' head, there was a flash of light and an explosion that briefly shook the floor of the control room and brought a halt to the fighting.

Matt had intended for this hit to knock Phos flat on his back. Instead, the half-elf was sent flying across the room, phasing through the projected video screen and smashing into the wall a good fifteen feet off the ground.

If anyone was startled or surprised by this turn of events, none were more so that Matt himself. He jumped backward with a cry, bug-eyed and slack-jawed, nearly tripping over his own feet and dropping the staff. The scare left his veins feeling chilled and his heart hammering in his ears.

_What... the heck... was that? Did I just-_

"Good, you got him!" he heard someone say quickly.

"Huh?" was all he could say in response. Something tapped his shoulder, and he turned to see that Lloyd had approached without him noticing.

The teen was observing the ongoing battle rather than looking at Matt as he spoke. "Looks like Genis got rid of the sorcerer, too. C'mon, let's help Kratos with Magnius!"

Lloyd immediately rushed into the fray, leaving Matt to glance back apprehensively at the crumpled form of his fallen opponent. After a moment, he shook his head, deciding to leave his questions for later, and began trotting toward the other fighters.

"Stand down, Matthew!" a voice called out.

The man stopped short. "What? Why-"

"Stand down!" Kratos shouted again, more impatiently this time. "We'll take care of this!"

Unsure what else to do, Matt stayed where he was, watching the remainder of the battle play out. With his underlings all defeated, it was all Magnius could do to keep Kratos and Lloyd at bay long enough to unleash his own attacks, with a throaty cry of "Hell Hound!" or "Hell Axe!" punctuated by a sudden burst of flame directed at his attackers. However, with Colette and Genis now supporting the two swordsmen with their ranged attacks, his chances to use these Techs grew fewer and further between, and with Raine casting healing spells, the damage he inflicted was quickly negated.

The fight was gone from his eyes. His former confidence and anger had vanished, leaving behind a primal fear for his very survival.

 _I... guess they don't need me for this part._  Realizing this, Matt looked down at the staff in his hands, wrinkled his nose at it, and tossed it aside.

In a matter of minutes, the fight drew to a close. Lloyd struck Magnius' shield so hard that it shattered, and with a bash of his own shield, Kratos knocked the axe out of his hand. The moment his defenses were down, Genis and Colette attacked him with Aqua Edge and Angel Feathers, respectively, and Lloyd and Kratos both executed Sonic Thrust at once, shouting "Cross Thrust!" in unison as they drove their blades home.

The tyrant collapsed to his knees, one hand covering some of the bleeding wounds on his chest, the other on the ground holding him up.

"How?" he gasped. "How could a superior half-elf like me-" The Grand Cardinal coughed violently, copious amounts of blood seeping from his mouth.

Kratos sheathed his sword, and the others followed suit with their respective weapons (except Raine) as Matt approached tentatively. There was the Desian leader who had had so much pain inflicted on him and countless others, who had probably had an even greater number of people killed, brought to death's threshold.

In some twisted way, he found the sight gratifying.  _God, forgive me..._

"It's because you are a fool, Magnius," Kratos stated coldly. "Cruxis has accepted Colette as the Chosen."

"What?!" Magnius cried weakly, his whole body from the mouth down turning ruby red. "So, you're... then... I was deceived."

With that, he fell to the ground and was still.

Immediately, Genis' priorities shifted. "Okay, Raine, what's going on?" he demanded.

"Not now, Genis," his sister answered firmly as she approached a computer terminal in the wall and began punching in commands.

"What are you guys talking about?" Lloyd asked, glancing between the two elves.

Genis folded his arms; he would have looked much more serious were he a few feet taller. "Matt just used more mana in one attack than five grown men have in their whole bodies, and you don't think that's a big deal?!"

The four humans present gave a collective " _What?_ " and Matt quickly found himself under the surprised, confused, and critical gazes of the others.

It was Raine, of all people, who came to his rescue. "I have some answers regarding that," she said calmly, drawing all attention to herself but not taking her eyes off her task. "They can wait until we're safely away from here."

Genis was practically steaming with irritation. "You mean you knew there was something off about him  _this entire time_ , and you didn't tell us about it?!"

Matt did not envy the older elf when Kratos' accusing stare shifted from himself to her; he shot her one himself, remembering with resentment her suspicious attitude toward him.

The professor finished what she was doing and glared over at her brother. "The people imprisoned in the ranch can escape now, and I'm going to program this place to self-destruct." Cue looks of disbelief from the younger party members. "As I said, the subject of Matthew can wait until we're out of this place."

Matt winced. " _Please_  don't use the word 'subject' around me."

* * *

Nine minutes later, the group had reached the eastern ranch's exterior and was bolting for the open and unguarded main gate. To no one's surprise except Matt's, they encountered Neil just outside the perimeter fence; he informed them that the Palmacostan militia was escorting the liberated captives back to the city, and they told him of the impending danger.

Matt was the first of them to emerge from the trees surrounding the ranch, sprinting faster than he would have thought possible in his weakened state, even with his Exsphere fueling him. He kept running, only briefly looking back over his shoulder to see that the others were following, until the grassy ground beneath his feet suddenly shook. He skidded to a stop and turned around fully to see what was happening just as the deafening report of the explosion reached him.

"AH!" He let himself sink to the ground, eyes shut and hands clapped over his ears.

The tremors and the roaring of the destruction gradually faded after what was probably a minute, but felt a few times longer. Only when the shaking had stopped and the booming was reduced to a low rumble did Matt open his eyes and lift his gaze.

Kratos, Raine, Lloyd, Colette, Genis, and Neil were gathered halfway between him and the edge of the forest, staring up at the sky. A massive cloud of dust, smoke, and debris hung in the air above the treetops; even now, parts of it began descending back down to earth.

 _It's gone._  Breathing heavily, Matt rolled over onto his back and looked up at the clear, blue sky. The green grass was the most comfortable surface he had laid on in days, never mind the fact that the blades poked into his wounds from the whip. The cool surface blended nicely with the warmth of the mid-morning sun.  _I'm out, and it's gone... Thank you._

He lay there while the others held their discussion with Neil. While they decided against escorting the captives all the way to Palmacosta, they agreed to stay with them for one night so that Kratos and Raine could heal them for the journey before continuing on to the city to confront Dorr. At the brief meeting's conclusion, Neil walked on to the camp the militia had set up, while the Chosen's group all turned to Raine.

"I believe an explanation is in order," Kratos said expectantly.

Lloyd nodded, notably making little of the fact that he agreed with the mercenary for once.

"We found Matt in the control room," Colette pointed out. "What happened to you and Genis after you went looking for him?"

Genis sighed aloud. "Colette, we're talking about how he can still stand after he used so much mana."

The Chosen blinked once. "Oh. Well, that, too."

Raine nodded, her expression serious. "This will take a little time, and Matthew should be there to hear it as well. I don't have all the answers, but I'll tell you what I know about his nature."

"All right," Lloyd concurred. "Let's get to camp and get this over with, then."

Matt was lying so still when they went to get him that Lloyd at first thought he had fallen asleep on the spot; on closer inspection, however, his eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky, and he had a smile to rival one of Colette's. Then, when they gathered around his field of vision and he noticed them, his eyes flicked to each of them in turn, and his smile faltered.

"Guys," he murmured as he sat up. "Thank you... Thank you for getting me out of there. I was really worried for a while there-"

He was silenced when Raine and Lloyd pulled him up to his feet by his arms, the professor looking him up and down, unashamedly exploring every rip in his clothes and the injuries underneath. He flinched when she got to the stripes on his back.

"They didn't hurt you too badly, did they?" Colette asked anxiously.

Matt shrugged. "Nothing broken, nothing permanent as far as I know, so... I guess not."

"We did not come for you," Kratos said with folded arms while she did this. "We weren't even aware you had been captured until shortly before we found you."

 _Well, that kinda figures._  "I didn't really expect you to be," Matt admitted sadly. "But you still got there in the nick of time and saved my skin - again. So thank you."

"What do you mean, 'in the nick of time?'" Genis inquired, making sure not to forget his other questions.

"Magnius was just about to have me sent off to his boss as some kind of research subject," Matt answered, the thought sending a chill down his spine.

"Magnius'  _boss?_ " Lloyd repeated, suddenly much more invested in the conversation. "Did you get their name?"

Kratos intervened before Matt could put any effort into recalling the answer. "Magnius was brutal enough. The kind of person he would give his loyalty to is probably one we're better off avoiding." Not for the first time, the mercenary was grateful for his ability to mask his emotions.

"Enough talk for now," Raine said firmly, her examination of Matt finished. "Permanently or no, you're injured and need medical attention, and we have something more pressing to discuss. Let's get back to camp."

The others consented and started off; Matt watched them for a moment, puzzling over what Raine had meant, before following.

* * *

As they walked, Matt told them about everything he remembered happening between his leaving Palmacosta and the storming of Magnius' control room: the Desians' attack, his and Chocolat's capture, the experiments in the lab, the hard labor outside, his little chat with Magnius that morning, and the return of his memory of his father.

"Well, that's great!" Lloyd exclaimed. "It'll be much easier for you to find your family now that you know who to look for."

"I sure hope so," Matt responded with a shrug. He had decided it would be better not to mention what else he had remembered just yet. The last thing he wanted so soon after his release was to get in an argument of religion.

Thankfully, no one inquired further about his memories. When they reached the captives' camp, they had a quick meal (which Matt devoured with gusto), after which he lay down on the grass and dozed off. Raine and Kratos took the opportunity to go through the camp and get the healing done, with Colette tagging along, while Lloyd and Genis went to hunt down some local monsters for food.

Matt's sleep was deep, but not sound. Even after everything he had been through, that first Desian he had killed had not left his mind. To make matters worse, this time, he brought a friend with him. The specter of Phos joined the nameless half-elf, and though Matt was spared having to look him in the eye by his ever-present helmet, the lower half of his face was mutilated beyond recognition. The sight was so frightening that for once, Matt was grateful when Lloyd shook him out of his slumber, worry lines etching themselves on his features.

 _I didn't even_ see _what I did to him,_  he realized once the nightmare was dispelled.  _Then why did it show in my dream?!_

The group reconvened at sundown for dinner. Matt was sitting on the forest floor with a bowl of soup in his hands. Raine was standing over him, casting healing magic on him. The others were seated around a campfire with him, Lloyd on his right, Colette next to him, then Kratos, and Genis on his left. Once the elf-maid was sure she had their undivided attention, she sorted out her thoughts and began.

"When he first found us in the Triet Desert, there was absolutely no mana in Matthew's body."

Her words sunk like a stone in the minds of her listeners.

"Raine, that's impossible, isn't it?"

"What do you mean, Professor Sage?"

"Hold on - don't you die when you have no mana? I'm not dead, am I?"

"How can that be, Professor?"

Raine quietly appreciated Kratos' silence amid the commotion. She waited for the younger ones to quiet down before speaking again.

"I don't know how it's possible; I can only speculate. That first night, I thought for sure he was an illusion of some sort. When no one else noticed anything suspicious, I decided to keep it to myself to see what might happen. If it turned out his intentions were hostile, I didn't want him to know I suspected him of anything. Besides, this is the Journey of Regeneration; pursuing the subject seemed like too much of a rabbit trail at the time. I decided to let the matter rest until morning; maybe he would simply vanish in the night.

"Obviously, that didn't happen. He was still there in the morning, and what's more, he had a noticeable trace of mana in him. My next best guess was that my senses had been clouded before, and that he simply had too little mana rather than none at all. Honestly, I had been looking forward to him leaving us in Triet so I could keep believing that. Then he decided he wanted to come with us, and I started noticing more strange things about him. While he gained mana from eating the same way the rest of us do, no matter how much he would exert himself, it was never depleted. By the time we reached Ossa Trail, it was also becoming apparent that he had no mana signature-"

Matt raised his hand.

"...Yes?"

"What's a mana signature?"

Raine sighed. "Inside the body of each living thing, there are physical components that make it what it is. The arrangement of these components is consistent within each species, but the makeup of each component makes it unique as an individual-"

"DNA."

Raine stopped talking again and moved to look Matt in the face, having finished healing him. His brow was furrowed and his eyes had a far-off look to them. "What was that?" she asked.

"You're describing DNA," he clarified, his expression unchanging.

Lloyd scratched his head. "What's dee en ae?"

Matt gestured behind himself to where Raine had been a moment earlier. "It's what she was talking about..." He put a hand on his temple and shook his head, his pensive look relaxing. "I'm sorry. Continue."

The professor blinked once, then nodded and moved to sit between her brother and Matt. "In any case," she continued, "in most living things, mana binds itself to the body, including these components, and takes on its shape. Since elves and half-elves can sense mana, we can identify different species and individuals by the structure of their mana signature if we choose to. Matthew's mana was not doing this; instead, it was shapeless, free to flow through the confines of his body."

Genis glanced suspiciously at Matt for a moment. "It's not like that now."

"I'll get to that!" Raine snapped at him, loudly and suddenly enough to raise questions in the others' minds. She paused to collect herself before continuing and dispelling those questions. "Aside from his mana's lack of structure, it continued to increase beyond natural levels each day. I also discovered that because his mana was not associating with his physical body, healing spells had no effect on him, which is the real reason I insisted we only give him gels for healing purposes."

"Although the reason you gave was also correct," Kratos interjected. "Healing magic would not have been as effective on him without an Exsphere."

"Yes, which is why I said so," Raine confirmed. "Anyway, this all continued up to the last time we saw you in Palmacosta, Matthew. The conclusion I've come to is that you had never encountered mana before we met you, meaning you probably come from a place where little to none exists. It would explain why your mana did not behave normally, and why your body does not process it."

"But... that can't be right!"

All eyes turned to Colette, who had backed up a bit with her arms and legs curled up defensively in front of her.

"The only beings who can survive without mana are... demons," she whimpered.

Genis and Lloyd reflexively drew back, but Raine just shook her head. "That crossed my mind, but demons are also highly intolerant of the presence of mana," she said calmly. "Even with the way things are now, a demon here in Sylvarant would be sickly and weak just from the presence of mana, and ingesting it would surely kill it. Just because demons are the only  _known_  beings that can survive without mana doesn't mean there aren't others."

The teenagers all relaxed visibly as she turned her head slightly to look at Matt out of the corner of her eye. "Even before the ranch, Matthew was exhibiting qualities specific to humans, beyond mana and physical attributes. Inquisitiveness, creativity, strong emotions, compassion, even faulty memory. It's more likely that he's either a new variety of human or a human who was altered somehow. But I digress. It seems the testing you underwent in the ranch has changed you further, Matthew."

She paused to see if he would respond somehow; he did not.

"Genis and I found the laboratory where he was experimented on," she continued, "and along with the case containing his Exsphere and Key Crest, we found the scientists' notes. Their observations on his arrival were much the same as mine. They also found that electrical shocks caused his mana to react, so they put him through numerous electrocutions to observe the effects."

"That's awful!" Lloyd blurted out.

Matt gave a single bitter, humorous laugh. "You're telling me." Throughout the exposition, he had been quietly trying to digest this new information. The signs pointing to his being something other than human had made him agitated and downcast, making him all the more grateful to Raine for pointing out his humanity. Lloyd's empathy, too, did a good bit to raise his spirits; if the teen could set his own suspicions aside, even for a moment, he could, too.

"It seems the continued exposure to lightning magic caused his mana to bond more thoroughly with his body, so that he now has a fully human mana signature," Raine resumed. "Aside from having too much or too little mana, no elf or half-elf would notice anything different about you now, Matthew. Evidently, this result was not to the Desians' liking. Their last note said they wanted to find others like you - beings who can accumulate mana, but do not live on it."

"Wait, what?" Matt's eyes widened with a sudden realization. "Oh... I get it now. Magnius told me just before you guys got there that he'd let me go if I told him where I came from. He only tried to send me to his boss when I told him I don't remember." His face fell and his tone lowered. "He just wanted fresh lab rats."

"Huh. Then... maybe it's a good thing you-"

Raine smacked Genis before he could utter the words "don't remember."

Colette spoke up next. "Then, what was that attack he used that used so much mana?"

"My guess," Raine answered with her knuckles to her chin in a thinking pose, "is that his Exsphere let him use a tech without him meaning to, and that tech served as an outlet for his excess mana."

An image of a dam breaking to release floodwaters appeared in Lloyd's mind; the comparison made sense to him, so he accepted it. "So, what happens now?"

"I... uh..."

It was a strange experience for Matt, after what they had been through together so far, to have the others look at him the same way they had at their first meeting: curiously, expectantly, suspiciously. Shrugging off the nostalgia, he steeled himself; he would speak his mind and worry about their answer later.

"I know what I said - what I wrote - when I left. That I'm not cut out for killing, and that I was just weighing you guys down." He clenched his left hand into a fist and touched the Exsphere on it with his right. "The game's changed now. With this, I think I can keep up, and-"

Lloyd held up a hand and shook his head, giving a small smile. "We were willing to bring you with us before when you didn't have an Exsphere," he remarked.

"Huh?" Matt hesitated. "Well, yeah, but-"

"And we certainly weren't letting you join us because of your battle prowess," Raine pointed out.

"We let you come with us because you asked for our help, and because you wanted to help us - whether you actually could or not," Genis reasoned.

"And you've been determined to get stronger from the start so that you could help," Colette added cheerfully. "Overall, you're a good person and we like you. That much hasn't changed."

Raine's input notwithstanding, Matt was touched by this acceptance from his companions; he had expected, at most, to be asked to wait for an answer. There was one more person, however, who was not quite on board yet.

Kratos stood from his place. "That was before. We can't ignore this most recent turn of events."

"What?" the five others asked at once.

The mercenary folded his arms. "The fact remains that Matthew deserted us. There was a time when I had such people imprisoned. Certainly I'd never consider allowing a deserter to fight alongside me in battle." He turned and started walking away. "They can't be trusted."

Kratos' words threatened to shatter what little optimism Matt had regarding the matter, and he wondered if he should just let the matter go. Then Lloyd started climbing to his feet, practically radiating indignation. "Stop," he said softly, and he got up himself. "I need to do this."

The sun had set, and Kratos had walked into the trees away from the camp's fires. If it had not been for his wild, jagged hair standing out among the trunks and branches, Matt would not have been able to find him stalking through the forest.

"Kratos, wait."

The mercenary slowed to a stop, but kept his back turned.

Matt closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "Back in Triet," he began, "when you first told me what I'd have to do if I joined you, I said I understood. I thought I did, so... it wasn't a lie. But it wasn't true, either." He lowered his head, staring at the ground. "I didn't realize who or what we were up against. It didn't occur to me we'd have to kill people. I definitely didn't know what killing would do to me. Then when I did, I... it was too much. So I ran away." He lifted his gaze again. "After everything you all did for me, I ran away in the middle of the night, and I didn't even have the decency to tell you myself." He averted his eyes. "That's gotta be the most selfish thing I've ever done, and I'm sorry. If you'd let me make it up to you-"

"You said something like that once before."

Kratos had turned halfway around to face Matt. His face was blank and his tone disinterested.

"You first told me you  _wanted_  to come with us because you owed us a debt. That didn't stop you from leaving before. What makes this time any different?"

Stinging as this query was, Matt knew it was justified, and he had an answer. "This time... I know what it is you're fighting for. I've seen it firsthand. I've been through it myself."

"So you want revenge for their treatment of you?"

Matt narrowed his eyes. "I was only in there three days, and the ones who did this to me are gone. Revenge isn't a part of this. There were hundreds of people who were prisoners there for who knows how long. How many other prisoners are there at all the other ranches? How many people have the Desians slaughtered on the road for no reason but because they could? How many-"

Kratos turned all the way around with one hand raised, signalling for Matt to stop talking. "You want to help put a stop to the suffering they inflict on the world."

 _Yeah, but... I was gonna say more._ "... Basically."

The mercenary lowered his hand. "Even though it's entirely possible this isn't even your world?"

Matt bristled. "You don't actually believe that, do you? Even Magnius didn't believe it - he was just trying to cause trouble, like he did with Chocolat! I told you, he tried to get me to tell him where he could find others like me!"

"Yet Professor Sage has corroborated his observations about you."

"And Colette all but confirmed his story about Marble. This  _really_  isn't the point!" Matt snapped.

One of Kratos' eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch.

Matt took a deep breath, allowing his frustration to fizzle out. The thought that there could be  _any_ truth to Magnius' speculation worried him. How was he supposed to get home if home was in a different world?

He continued, eyes to the ground once again. "You have every right and every reason to say no. I probably would. I can't exactly show you that I mean what I'm saying unless you let me come along."

"Indeed."

"... But I can tell you this." He looked Kratos dead in the eye, expression firm. "If you  _do_ let me come with you, I'm sticking it out. I'll fight when I need to, and I'll kill when I have to. I'll still be looking for my family along the way, but if I find them before this is over, I'll just mark the place down on the map and keep going. I'll go back to stay once the Desians are stopped, and not a day sooner."

A heavy silence followed. Matt waited for Kratos to give some indication of what he was thinking, but none came for several seconds.

Finally, the mercenary spoke again. "I'll discuss it with the others." With that, he turned and began walking away again.

Matt breathed a sigh of relief. Not having a straight answer meant it could still go either way, and he preferred to wait and receive a "yes" than to be given an immediate "no." Still, he was not quite finished yet. "Whatever you decide," he said urgently, "I have one more question."

Kratos, detecting his change in tone, stopped and faced him again, curious.

"How do you live with it?" Matt asked.

"With what?"

"With... all the people you've killed." When Kratos gave no answer, Matt moved to a nearby tree and sat on the ground with a sigh, leaning against the trunk. "I've killed two people now." He tapped the side of his head with one finger. "They won't stop showing up in here. How do you... how do you go through life with their ghosts following you wherever you go?"

"You don't."

"Huh?"

Kratos moved to stand closer and look down at the younger man. "If you carry the guilt of what you've done for the rest of your days, it will squeeze the life out of you. You need to take responsibility for your actions."

Matt tilted his head. "Take responsibility?"

"Do you believe taking their lives was justified?"

He looked away, unable to shake the feeling of conviction in himself. "Just isn't always the same thing as good."

"An important distinction to make, but it's not what I asked. Why did you kill them?"

Matt swallowed; thinking about the answer forced him to relive the moments. "... Because they would've killed me or worse if I hadn't."

"Knowing that, would you spare them if given the chance?"

 _Would I?... Should I?_   "...No."

Kratos nodded. "When you take responsibility and own up to your actions, you can begin to lay to rest your guilt over them. Even if you ultimately regret them, it can help you avoid repeating your mistakes. That responsibility is a weight all on its own, so you must never take bloodshed lightly. That you still do not in spite of everything the Desians did to you speaks volumes about your character."

 _No. Tears. NO. TEARS._  Matt rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and sighed, already trying to put Kratos' words to practice in his mind.  _I did what I had to._ _There wasn't anything else I could have done. And if I'm gonna help stop the Desians, there's nothing else I can do._  "OK. Thanks, Kratos."

The mercenary simply watched him silently for a few seconds more before turning away again. "Go back to the others and get some rest. Even with an Exsphere, you need to recover your strength."

Matt looked up to watch him go, brow furrowed. "Wait, where are you going, then?"

"For a walk."

So Kratos vanished into the forest, and after a moment, Matt got back up and returned to camp. Already, the ghosts in his mind were starting to lose their power over him.


	17. A Relatively Tame Initiation

Little of note happened on the party's four day return trip from the eastern ranch to Palmacosta. Shortly after they set out, Lloyd examined Matt's Exsphere and Key Crest, and he noted that the accessory was designed to fit over the stone and could be removed independently of it. He immediately offered to modify the Key Crest so that it could only be removed when the Exsphere was not equipped, to which Matt agreed. The second the Exsphere was taken off, his strength flagged and he could not walk steadily, so he had to ride on Noishe's back while the teen worked. Only when he had his Exsphere safely re-equipped did he dismount to continue on foot. Despite his weakened condition, with the Exsphere he could walk faster and further than Neil, who had taken his leave of the militia to witness the upcoming confrontation with Dorr.

 _Funny_ , Matt thought.  _The Desians almost made me too weak to stand. They also made the tools letting me keep going like nothing happened._

Not an especially pleasant observation, but a mildly humorous one.

Being completely disarmed, and still not quite on favorable terms with Kratos, Matt did not participate in any battles during this leg of the journey. Nor was he invited to train with the two swordsmen in the mornings, even for their workouts. It hurt to not be included in this anymore, but he did not complain, or even acknowledge it, unless he was asked about it. This was his punishment for abandoning the group, and he would endure it until they came to a final decision. Besides, he was lucky Kratos had consented to bring him to Palmacosta with them rather than leaving him with the other freed captives, and he was not about to push his luck.

Still, Matt became increasingly anxious as they traveled with no indication of whether he would be allowed to stay with them. Lloyd, Colette, and Genis each seemed to favor his return, if the time they spent amiably conversing with him and speculating on his origins was anything to judge by. Even Raine's suspicion had mellowed out into genuine curiosity, and every now and then she would spend some time talking with him about the potential advantages and drawbacks of his being a living mana sponge.

"You'll need to take steps to keep your mana at a reasonable level," she told him one day as they walked. "Having too much or too little will draw unwanted attention if we encounter any half-elves, and if you build up too much like you did before, you could accidentally hurt yourself or your allies in battle. The best thing you can do is to periodically use techs to get rid of any excess."

"Hmm... That's gonna be hard if I can't sense my own mana," Matt grumbled. "And if using it doesn't make me tired like it does to you guys-"

"Genis and I can help you monitor it as long as you're with us," she interrupted.

He gave her a pointed yet saddened look. "How long's that gonna last?"

The elf had no answer to that.

By all appearances, Kratos was the sole holdout. Following their conversation the night after Matt was liberated, the mercenary was even more reserved toward him than before, rarely speaking to him and conveying his thoughts in one to three words when he did. Whether it had something to do with his mysterious nature or it was solely because of his desertion, Matt could not guess, nor was it especially important. He could not change what he had done, much less what he apparently was. He told himself that the solution was to simply be on his best behavior and make himself as useful as he knew how, with varying results. For all his efforts, though, Kratos gave no indication that anything had changed, and the evening they returned to Palmacosta, Matt found himself struggling inwardly between two extremes: admitting and accepting defeat prematurely and miserably, or getting his hopes up with the threat of having them dashed against his will.

_Maybe I'm not supposed to keep going with them after all... Am I? If not, what do I do then?_ _Where DO you want me?_

He sighed and folded his hands behind between his head and his pillow. The group had dropped him off at Skipper's Haven on their way to Dorr's office; whether things turned south with the governor-general or not, he had still not quite recovered and needed rest. So he had taken a bath and gone back to his room - the same one, funnily enough, he and Kratos had shared before. He was left to himself to wait and wonder: wonder about why Dorr had betrayed his friends to the Desians, about what would happen when they arrived at the governor-general's office, about whether they would let him travel with them... about whether he was  _meant_  to.

All the while, his music filled his ears:

* * *

_The secret side of me, I never let you see  
_ _I keep it caged, but I can't control it  
_ _So stay away from me, the beast is ugly  
_ _I feel the rage, and I just can't hold it_

_It's scratching on the walls, in the closet, in the halls_  
It comes awake, and I can't control it  
Hiding under the bed, in my body, in my head  
Why won't somebody come and save me from this, make it end?

* * *

Matt chuckled in spite of himself. This was the song that had played when Raine had demanded a demonstration of his MP3 player. She had been able to figure out how to turn it on and off, but knew nothing else of its purpose or function, so she had been glad to return it to him. The look on her face at the sounds coming from the earbuds had been absolutely priceless - the joy and wonder at experiencing what the mystery device was for, slowly overtaken by obvious distaste for the song itself. Seeing that, the teenagers had opted not to try it for themselves, to Matt's relief. He knew its battery would run out eventually, but was not sure how he could recharge it. Only with the return of his music did he realize how quiet the wilds really were; he wanted to enjoy his songs every second he could.

Soon,  _Monster_  ended and another song came on:

* * *

_Oh, don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me  
_ _I said you're holding back, she said-_

* * *

_What?_  Matt shook his head and paused the music to check the machine's display.

_Shut Up and Dance? Why the heck do I have this one?_

A flicker of movement caught his attention, and he sat up to see the door opening to admit Kratos, the rest of the party trudging close behind him. Though they appeared unharmed, to his dismay they all had drooping eyelids, downcast faces, and shuffling footsteps. Raine in particular looked ready to fall asleep on the spot.

Matt swallowed, fearing what he might hear. "What happened in there?" he asked once he had switched off the MP3 player and removed his earbuds.

Raine plopped down in the chair as each of the teens took seats on the two beds, leaving Kratos the only one standing. "Dorr's dead," Lloyd sighed.

Matt flinched. "What? Why?! What happened?"

Genis pushed some stray strands of hair out of his face. "Well, you see..."

So the party took turns explaining what had happened, Kratos only speaking up to clarify or correct some point or another: Dorr's secret meeting with one of Magnius' Desians, his betrayal of Palmacosta, his wife's transformation into an Exbelua, and his murder at the hands of a changeling half-elf disguised as his deceased daughter.

"She was a lot tougher than she looked, that's for sure," Lloyd mused.

"Well, that..." Matt sighed and rubbed his forehead, his frown matching those of the others. "That's all just supremely messed up."  _Add it to Magnius' ledger, I guess,_  he thought bitterly. "So why's Raine in such bad shape?"

The scholar had nodded off sitting up several minutes earlier.

"Professor Sage had to keep us alive throughout the battle," Kratos answered curtly. "Then she spent much of her energy trying to heal Dorr before he died. Afterward, she insisted on healing our own injuries."

"Ah."  _Poor girl._  "So..." he began, hesitantly changing the topic, "what happens now?"

"Neil's going to lead the effort to restore order in the city's government," Colette answered, giving her first genuine smile since returning from the ordeal. "I think Palmacosta's in good hands."

Matt nodded. "That's good news. But... what about you guys?"

Genis immediately picked up on his choice of words. "Wait, you don't want to come with us?"

"That's not it!" Matt promptly denied. "I just - I don't think I've heard the final word on it."

All eyes turned to Kratos - all those that were awake, at any rate. As per usual, the mercenary betrayed no thought or emotion in his expression. "We'll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it," he stated simply.  _Drop it._

Matt sighed and dipped his head in a nod.  _How long are you gonna keep me in the dark?_

Meanwhile, Kratos' demeanor was once again getting on Lloyd's nerves. "Well, he's gonna need to know pretty soon, isn't-"

Kratos cut him off by reaching into his bag, retrieving a smaller sack, and tossing it to Matt's feet; it hit the floor with a hollow  _thunk_ , causing Raine to stir in her sleep and everyone else to jump slightly.

"That's a gift from Neil," the mercenary explained. With a sideways glance at the professor, he instructed, "Take it and anything else in here of yours to the next room. Chosen, you and Professor Sage share this room. Lloyd, Genis, you two stay in your usual place. I suggest you all get some rest." With that, he left the room on some errand of his own.

After Lloyd, Genis, and Matt moved Raine from the chair to one of the beds, they complied, Matt retrieving Sheena's card and his bill on his way out; he had been surprised, but not disappointed, to find them right where he had left them.

"I don't suppose either of you knows the plan?" he nonchalantly asked the two boys once they were out in the hall.

Lloyd scratched his head, conflicted. "Some of it. Only..."

Genis spoke up when his friend faltered, appearing uncomfortable nonetheless. "I think we all trust you, Matt, but if you don't end up coming with us, it's probably better if you can't tell anyone else where we're going."

Matt winced. "... Yeah, that makes sense. It wouldn't be cool to go behind Kratos' back, anyway, I guess. Well, g'night, then. Seeya in the morning."

"Night, Matt."

"Seeya."

This, however, was not quite the way it turned out.

* * *

Matt woke the next morning to a knock on the door to the room. Even with the curtains closed, the sunlight filtering through the window made him squint and blink as he sat up.

"Coming," he called groggily, and he threw off the blankets and stumbled out of bed, donning a pair of dark brown cargo pants and a short-sleeved beige shirt on his way to the door. These had been Neil's gift to him, along with some socks, underpants, a pair of boots, and a vest. Upon discovering the new clothes, he had gladly torn off his prison garb and thrown it away. He had to roll the pant legs up to accommodate the boots, but otherwise, everything fit well, for which he was grateful.

Once he was decently dressed, Matt opened the door to find one of the maids waiting for him, a folded sheet of paper in her hands.

"Good morning, Mr. Matthew. The man who paid for this room asked that you be given a wake-up call and this letter. We hope you are enjoying your stay at Skipper's Haven. If any problems arise, don't hesitate to consult myself or any other hotel staff member." She said all this so quickly that Matt did not even notice she had given him the letter until she rounded the corner down the hall and disappeared from view.

"... Thank you," Matt acknowledged hesitantly as he examined the paper.  _A letter? Why would Kratos -_

The answer dawned on him before he could even phrase the question, and he whirled around to look at his room again. Kratos was gone, no surprise there. His things, however, were gone as well.

 _... Oh,_  he realized with a sinking feeling, nearly dropping the letter before even reading it.  _They... left. Before I woke up. I thought they'd at least let me see them off... Justice is served, I guess._

Dejected, he returned to his bed, not even bothering to close the door. Thoughts and emotions swirled through his mind, almost incoherently, but all generally depressing. Regardless of how the others had felt about it, Kratos had seemingly vetoed his return. Yet again, he found himself alone, with no clear idea how he should proceed; he had been putting off giving any serious thought to planning up until now.

_What do I do now? I still have no idea where my family is, and even if I did... I can't just go back and get comfortable again, not when I know what all's happening, not without DOING something about it! ...Can I? Please, you gotta give me something, anything..._

With a sigh, he mustered the will to unfold the letter and see what the others had to say. At first, it sounded much like he had expected, but as he read on, his little spiral of despair and loss shifted into reverse.

XXX

Matthew,

I trust this letter will find you well; the innkeeper seems dutiful enough. By the time you receive it, we will be on our way to retrieve the Spiritua Statue. We will not be returning to Palmacosta for the foreseeable future, nor may you come after us. You still have some recovering to do, and we cannot simply readmit you into our group after what happened. If you still wish to rejoin us, you need to prove your commitment to our cause.

In roughly eleven days, we will be stopping at the House of Salvation northeast of here. In order to join us again, you must find us there before we depart. In the meantime, I've arranged for you to train with the city militia and work here at the inn daily, so that you can learn spearmanship from experts and earn your keep, respectively. I don't particularly care how you get to the House of Salvation, but be aware that no tours will be leaving that way before we leave the region.

Lloyd, Raine, Colette, and Genis give you their regards.

Kratos

XXX

Just as Matt reached the end of the message, a rustling noise caught his attention. He looked up just in time to see a Palmacostan soldier entering his doorway, helmet tucked under his arm.

"Are you Matthew?" the man asked in a gruff voice.

"Yeah," he answered with a nod, still reeling.

The soldier nodded in turn and looked him up and down, noting his bedhead and bare feet. "I've been sent to bring you to the training grounds for the morning. Finish dressing and bring your weapon and anything else you think you'll need."

After a brief moment more while he digested everything he had just learned, Matt jumped to comply with the man's orders, quickly stuffing the letter in the nightstand's drawer and scrambling to put on his boots and vest. His erratic behavior was not due to nervousness, but elation. While making his way to the House of Salvation on his own did not seem like a small or easy errand to him, he was being given exactly what he had asked for. A second chance was being offered to him, and he again had a clear direction for himself.

Taking up his bill, he spared a quick glance at the clear morning sky that showed through the curtains waving in the breeze.

_Thank you._

* * *

It was official. Kratos was going to have to play closer to the vest from now on.

"Come on, it's nothing to be ashamed of!" Lloyd insisted. "Just a hint?"

The mercenary studiously ignored the teen's pestering.

Kratos had already had to convince Lloyd that nothing strange had happened during the initial skirmish in Magnius' control room. They had defeated the Desians they were so dismally outnumbered by because many of them had fallen on each others' weapons after his Light Spear blew them away. It was  _not_  because Magnius' insubordination had irked him, causing him to momentarily cast off his restraint and use more power than he should have. That would have been ridiculous.

Thankfully, Lloyd had accepted the explanation readily enough. However, after his offhanded remark about imprisoning deserters (curse Matthew for bringing it to the forefront of his mind), Lloyd had gotten it into his head that the mercenary must have been a high-ranking official in some army or another at some point in the past. Now, he would not rest until he knew which one.

"I mean, it probably wasn't Palmacosta," Lloyd reasoned. "Someone would probably have recognized you if it was. The only thing is, I can't think of any other cities or towns that even  _have_  militias..."

Kratos could not take much more; as Lloyd had said, he had to give him  _something_. "...It's not any place you would be familiar with," he stated carefully. "However, if we go there on this journey, I'll let you know."

Lloyd beamed, not seeming to care that his question had still not been answered. "All right. Thanks, Kratos!" With that, he ran up ahead to catch up with Genis and Colette. Again, Kratos was spared Lloyd's curiosity, and he was confident he would not be asked about that particular chapter of his past again.

The mercenary adjusted the strap holding his shield on his back and quickened his pace to catch up with the others. While Lloyd had proven himself to be sharper than he sometimes appeared, he still had a relatively short attention span. It served Kratos well in this instance; he was unsure how he would have handled it if one of the others, such as Genis or Raine, had confronted him on the matter. Thankfully, it seemed to have slipped their mind at some point in the past week. If they had not asked by now, they would not.

... Unless Lloyd flaunted the implicit confirmation he had gotten out of the older man and reminded them.

Kratos quietly swore to himself.

* * *

"Phalanx formation!"

The formation of soldiers shifted from a standard marching column to a bristling wall of forward-pointing spears in a matter of seconds. It was formidable enough of a sight from the sidelines; Matt shuddered to think of what the commander's view was like, facing the militia head-on.

He had spent most of the morning in the field performing exercises and combat drills with Palmacosta's militia in the field outside the city. It quickly became apparent that although Kratos had greater mastery of battle fundamentals, these soldiers had greater skill with their pole weapons than Kratos could ever teach him. Even with the enhanced speed and strength his Exsphere granted him, there was not one man among them Matt could easily defeat in a sparring match. In the back of his mind, he knew it was an invaluable learning experience; that did not make it a less frustrating one. It certainly did not help that he was given little actual instruction that morning.

The last thing the militia did before their midday meal was practice some battle formations. Matt was excused during this time, so he spent some of it sitting on a small hill nearby, watching them work and letting his temper cool off. Their rank-and-file conduct was impressive, although the rigid formations contrasted sharply with the wild battles he had witnessed and participated in with the Chosen's group.

 _They rely on the strength of the whole formation more than personal skill,_  he mused.  _In smaller battles, formations don't do as much good; everyone needs to use their own strengths to their fullest... If these guys fought like that, the formation would break, and their greater numbers would become a liability... Although breaking formation would be the best thing to do if they needed to react quickly. Maybe._

A familiar voice from behind him called out: "Impressive, isn't it?"

Matt turned his head, expecting to see another soldier approaching him. To his bewildered joy, the one walking up the hill toward him was not an armored soldier, but an old, gray-haired man in dingy brown prison clothing.

"You!" he exclaimed as he climbed to his feet.

The elderly man wore a solemn expression, but the trip from the ranch had clearly been relatively good to him; his back was straighter and his frame less frail than when Matt had last seen him. "It's good to see that you were freed as well, friend," he said earnestly as he reached the younger man. "I'd heard a prisoner who looked like you escaped the ranch with the Chosen just before it went up in smoke, but I wasn't sure if it was you." He extended his right hand. "I don't think we've been introduced yet. My name is Byron."

"Byron," Matt repeated, returning the handshake. "My name's Matthew. You got back here pretty quickly, didn't you?"

Byron nodded once. "We were separated into two groups based on the shape they were in. I was sent on ahead with the more able-bodied prisoners so the militia wouldn't have to keep an eye on as many people. The others will be brought back as quickly as they're able."

Matt's heart sank a little at the thought of those people slowly making their way along the long road back to Palmacosta. Still, it was a better prospect than many of them could have hoped for a week prior. "Well, that's good news..."

A chorus of murmurs interrupted the conversation here; the morning's training had ended, and the soldiers were meandering back to the city for lunch.

 _Finally! I'm starving._ "I think that's my cue," Matt sighed contentedly as he picked up his bill, holding it on his shoulder like the soldiers typically did.

Byron's expression went blank for a moment before he shook his head. "Very good. I think I'm going to the pub, then. Make sure you come by sometime today."

Matt hesitated. The pub was essentially a bar, and a bar meant alcohol; the thought made him recoil internally. "The pub? What for?"

"Not only did the Chosen and her companions rescue you personally, of all the captives in the ranch, they took you along with them," Byron explained. "It seems there's even more to you than what you told me back at the ranch. If it's all the same to you, I'd like to hear more about it."

 _Huh... He put that together pretty quickly._  Matt shrugged. "I'll see when I can get over there, then." He offered the man a wave as he took off to catch up to the soldiers. "Later!"

* * *

After a hearty meal provided by the Palmacosta Academy, it was time for Matt to put in some work at the inn. Business was more lively that day than he had remembered it being before; apparently, a good number of the prisoners were not from Palmacosta, and for some reason, these people were compelled to stay at Skipper's Haven. Whatever the case, the staff at the inn were positively delighted.

Being a short-term employee, Matt was not given any particular position or duties. Instead, the innkeeper gave him a list of chores that needed doing, instructing him to choose one item to complete during his shift. He decided to do the one labeled "kitchen," thinking it meant "cooking" and wanting to get some practice preparing food. He wound up washing dishes, cleaning counters, mopping the floor, and taking stock of the pantries until dinnertime. Once he was dismissed for the day, he bought himself a hot meal with some of his earnings and took it with him to the pub.

It was still early enough in the evening that the building was mostly empty when he arrived; most of the city's residents were out eating rather than drinking for the moment. A small group of men played a dice game at a table in the corner, the bartender made sure the bar was stocked with beverages for the coming crowds, and Byron sat on a stool at the counter with a mug in his hand. Only the latter two took any notice of Matt's arrival.

Like Matt, the old man seemed to have discarded his prison garb for real clothing as soon as possible, and he appeared much more at ease. "Ah, there you are, Matthew. Come, have a seat." As Matt did so, he returned his attention to the bartender for a moment. "This is the one I told you about, Louis."

"The one from the ranch?" Louis asked, looking Matt up and down and set aside a bottle of potion he had been examining. "Let's hear it, then."

Matt paused in the middle of unpacking the paper bag containing his dinner. "Hear what?"

"Your story, of course!" Byron answered, clapping him once on the back. "Most of the time, we have to wait for more people to get here before one comes along with a story to tell. It's not every day we get to hear one with such a small audience."

 _Ah._  The last time Matt had been asked to share his experiences like this had been the night of his capture.  _Well, here we go again..._  He shrugged. "Alright, but I'm gonna eat first," he conceded.

"Of course, of course," Byron agreed, and he pointed to the bartender. "Louis, let's get him something to drink, eh? Pick your poison, Matthew, it's on me."

"Oh - just water is fine, thanks," Matt insisted as Louis retrieved an empty mug, and he took a large bite of barbecue pork sandwich. His eyes closed in satisfaction at the flavor.  _Ooh, that's good... Let's see... Thank you for this food, for a good place to stay, for my job, and for my friends. Please, watch over them as they travel, and help me be ready to go meet them when it's time. Help us to free the people the Desians are holding captive, and please, help me find my family..._

The other two men let him finish his meal in peace, and in return, Matt began his story soon after he was finished. Regarding its content, it was much the same as the version he had told the pilgrims on the Asgard tour, up until his imprisonment: focused on the action, keeping the more personal parts to himself. However, he was in better spirits than he had been the last time, and for most of it, his storytelling was more lighthearted than before. When he got to his time in the custody of the Desians, he was careful to avoid going into detail about what exactly had been discovered about him. Knowing that it led them to torture him for days on end would be enough for them, and he did not want to arouse suspicion without need.

A couple of other people settled down to listen as Matt spoke. The first was a blonde woman who appeared to be Louis's girlfriend, if the way they each promptly put an arm around the other was anything to judge by. He had hesitated at this, but when the others only watched him expectantly, he shrugged it off and continued. He then barely acknowledged it when a young man in a priest's habit took the empty stool beside him, his interest piqued at the mention of the Chosen. Others gradually drew near; he kept telling his story and paid the new arrivals little mind.

"So, the others have gone away for a few days on some long errand, and I'm gonna be rejoining them when they're done," he concluded. The listeners were quiet for a moment longer, as if waiting to see if he would say more. When he did not, Louis broke the quiet.

"Well, Desians and assassins and sea monsters. I didn't know the Journey of World Regeneration was so dangerous. You've got some stuff in you if you're still wanting to go through with it - especially without any liquid courage," he joked, releasing his girlfriend and fetching some mugs for a few new arrivals. "You sure you don't want anything? As a friend of the Chosen  _and_  a friend of Captain Byron, it'd be on the house."

Matt did a double-take. " _Captain_  Byron?"

"The one and only, Palmacosta's finest!" the blonde woman chimed in.

The old man waved his hand dismissively. "Now, Louis, Marie, I'm not a captain anymore. Not since I retired."

Louis shrugged. "Whatever you say, Captain."

 _Huh... A leader of Palmacosta's militia. Who'd have thought?_ Matt scratched his head. "Hold on. So how'd you get captured?"

Byron frowned and his eyes darkened. "Much as I love this city, living so close to the militia was making me restless, so I decided to move to Asgard to live with my niece and her family. I tried to make the trip alone, and I'm still certain I could have fought off any beast that came my way. I wasn't prepared to take on a whole squad of Desians. That was two years ago," he muttered, taking a sip from his mug.

 _Two!... Two whole years, and they didn't break him?! That's amazing._  "Wow," Matt breathed. "I... don't think I'd have lasted half as long."

Marie chortled to herself. "Half? You barely lasted three days."

" _Marie!_ " Louis reprimanded her, with just enough of an exasperated tone to convey she was prone to such rudeness.

"Sorry, sorry," she backpedaled. "I guess things were different for you in there."

 _No kidding. But really... I don't know who had it worse. Maybe he did._  "OK, but if you were trying to move to Asgard," Matt wondered, "why'd you come back here?"

Byron slapped his left hand down on the table so all could see the stone on it. "Because of  _this_ ," he declared bitterly.

Apparently, Matt was the only one among those gathered who knew what  _this_  was. "Your Exsphere? Oh - wait," he realized with widened eyes. "Those are supposed to be dangerous to wear without these Key Crests." He showed the group the arrangement on his own hand for comparison.

The old man nodded once. "The soldiers who escorted us here told us the same thing. If we try to take them off, we die. If we leave them, we die. Apparently, there's someone on their way from across the sea who can get them off safely. All of us from the ranch are under orders to stay here in Palmacosta until he does it - whether we actually live here or not."

"So... you're basically stuck here?" Matt asked.

"For a couple of weeks at the most," Marie asserted innocently. "Besides, there are worse places to be stuck, aren't there?"

Everyone in earshot immediately thought of the human ranch.

"Marie,  _please..._ " Louis sighed.

"What? I'm trying to help!" his girlfriend snapped.

Meanwhile, a series of memories ran through Matt's mind and gave rise to an idea. "So you want to leave for Asgard as soon as possible," he ventured, "but you can't leave yet because of your Exsphere?"

"Well, I could use a bit of a rest, if I'm being honest," Byron answered. "Just not a matter of weeks."

Matt nodded and looked down at his Exsphere again.  _Well, let's give this a shot, then._  He carefully pried the stone free of his Key Crest; the moment it left his skin, he had to slam his hand down on the counter to steady himself, nearly tossing the Exsphere away by accident as he did.

The gathered people gave a chorus of surprised and worried exclamations and reached out to steady him.

"Whoa, there!"

"Steady, son."

"You all right?"

"I'm OK, I'm OK," Matt grunted, feeling as if his limbs had turned to jelly. "Just a sec... OK." With a somewhat greater strain, he was able to sit up straight again. "I'm good now. Now..." He left his Exsphere on the counter while he removed his Key Crest.

Byron gave voice to everyone's thoughts: "Just what are you doing, lad?"

Rather than answer, Matt gestured to the old man's Exsphere. "Let me see your hand real quick."

This Key Crest had originally been designed by Kvar's scientists to enable safe removal of crest-less Exspheres by fitting over the top of them. This design would have also allowed the Key Crest to leave the Exsphere behind when removed, so Lloyd had re-shaped the Exsphere housing to make it more like a traditional Key Crest. Hence, Matt could not apply it to Byron's Exsphere the same way Kolter and Iridia had applied it to his. So, instead, he decided to put the Key Crest on the Exsphere upside-down. It fit, but Matt now had no way to pry off the Exsphere.

"You got a butter knive back there?" he asked Louis.

The bartender gave him the utensil, and he slipped the blunt edge under the Key Crest and between the Exsphere and Byron's hand. After several tense seconds, the stone popped off.

Byron held his own hand, staring at the circular imprint the Exsphere had left, while the onlookers leaned forward to see if anything would happen. To Matt's relief, nothing did.

"... Well," the old man murmured, "this changes things."

Matt nodded, pleased with his handiwork. "Anyway, any chance you'd take me to the House of Salvation on your way to Asgard? Going by myself doesn't seem like a good idea."

A new voice interjected before he got an answer: "If I may..."

Attention shifted to the young priest sitting beside Matt, who had not spoken since his arrival.

"If you're going to Asgard," he continued, "might I accompany you to Hakonesia Peak? I have church business to attend to there, but no one has been willing to make the journey with me. I'm a decent archer and a modest cook, so I can-"

"Say no more!" Byron exclaimed, smiling for the first time since his liberation from the ranch. "It looks like we'll have a traveling party of our own, Matthew."

Matt's gaze darted between the retired captain and the priest as he took in this new turn of events. He soon broke out into a grin of his own. "Well, great! Then can we leave in-"

"Sir, wait!"

Again, Matt whirled around at the interruption, and the small crowd that had formed parted to reveal a teenage girl staring wide-eyed at him.

"Yeah?" he probed, slightly off-put.

The girl stepped toward him. "Before you go, can you take mine off, too?" she asked, holding her hand up to show yet another Exsphere on it. "I wanna go home. My dad and my brothers are worried about me, and they need my help with the crops."

On second glance, Matt realized the teen was wearing human ranch prison clothing. His heart melted at her story and her pleading tone.

"Well, I-" he started, only to be stopped by a tap on the shoulder from Byron. The old man gestured to the rest of the pub, and Matt blinked at what he saw. "Oh."

Slowly, tentatively, even more people were approaching - some still in their prisoners' garb, the others wearing cleaner clothes, and all with crest-less Exspheres on their hands.

_This... isn't quite what I signed up for. Although it IS something I can do to help them without having to fight. Only... this is a lot of people..._

The priest noted Matt's flustered expression and motioned for him and Byron to huddle up. "Help them now if you can," he entreated Matt. "We can plan our journey later."

With another glance at the crowd behind them, Byron nodded. "Let's meet here tomorrow evening, then."

"...Yeah, let's do it," Matt agreed.

The priest gave a small smile and rose from his seat to leave. "Good. My name is Delwyn. Pleased to meet you two." With that, he turned and left the pub.

 _Delwyn, huh? Cool. Now, then..._  Matt turned from the bar back to the crowd and the girl who had addressed him earlier. She was still holding up her hand with the Exsphere, and more people had gathered behind her.

Matt sighed and forced a grin.  _Here goes nothing._  "Alright," he consented, "let's see that hand there." The sight of her smile at his words turned his own false one into a real one.


	18. Unwelcome Guests

An hour later, Matt had removed the Exspheres of every former prisoner in Palmacosta who had wanted him to. This mostly consisted of those who lived outside the city; many of the residents and those waiting for family to arrive with the other captives were content to wait for Dirk to come and perform the procedure. While he did not like the idea of just leaving them for someone else to take care of, he was tired by the time he was done, and trying to continue with unsteady hands could have proven disastrous. Besides, once he had learned it was none other than Lloyd's dad who had been summoned, he was certain he would be leaving these people in very capable hands. So, with that day's work done, he re-equipped his Key Crest and Exsphere and retired to the inn. Meanwhile, word began to spread throughout the city about a companion of the Chosen who was freeing the liberated captives of their "demon seeds."

Though he had not been travelling or pushing blocks or digging trenches, the day had still been a long and tiring one, and he was asleep soon after his head hit the pillow. Even if he had been awake, it is doubtful he would have seen or heard the shadow that slipped in through his open window and crept to his bed soon after midnight.

A clapped hand over his mouth served both to wake him and muffle his yelp of surprise.

Something touched his throat. "Scream and you die," a lowered, deadly voice hissed.

Matt froze, and his blood seemed to chill as he recognized the voice. He was lying flat on his back, somewhat buried in the bed's blankets; standing over him, eyes glinting at him in the near darkness, was Sheena.

 _Ohnoohnoohno... She's here to finish the job, isn't she? But then... she'd have been better off killing me in my sleep, right?_  "What do you want?" he asked. He could hear his heartbeat more clearly than his own whisper.

A creature that looked like a cross between a dog and a squirrel, sporting three tails, jumped over the assassin's shoulder and ran down her arm to stand beside the card she held to his throat. As if it did not  _look_  strange enough, it spoke in a high-pitched whisper: "Sheena's looking for the Chosen!"

Matt gaped at the animal. "What the heck are-  _agh!_ "

Sheena silenced him by pressing a little harder against his neck. "Where.  _Is she_?" She let up enough to let him answer.

"Look, she's not here, OK?!" he whispered frantically.

"I know that. I heard you telling those people at the pub that the Chosen left for some other part of the region. You never mentioned  _where_."

"That's because I don't  _know!_  They didn't tell me!"  _For exactly this reason..._

Sheena, however, was not quite convinced, and she applied a little extra pressure to Matt's neck. "They didn't tell you? So they didn't even talk about it near you? Or what they were going to do next?"

"Urk... They're going to get a statue! The Spiritua Statue! That's literally all I know that I didn't say at the pub!"

A tense silence fell over the three, Corrine's tails flicking back and forth like a cat's. Matt was grateful for the low lighting; he could not be distracted by what he could not see, and he really could not afford to let his eyes wander.

Finally, Sheena withdrew her weapon, Corrine wobbling on his perch before retreating to her shoulder. "Well, why were you left behind, then? If they didn't want you telling anyone where they were going, they could have just taken you along."

No longer feeling in immediate danger, Matt relaxed a little. Only a little, though.  _She might still decide to kill me... I can't give her the chance._  He slowly started curling up his legs and lower body underneath the blankets. "I'm kinda on probation here," he answered bitterly. "You heard about that whole running away thing, right?"

He jumped as Sheena kicked one of the bedposts in frustration, but the scare let him get into position without raising suspicion.

"Of all the people in her group I could tail," she vented to herself as she started pacing along the length of the bed, "I pick the slow one thinking he'll be the easiest to follow. And they  _leave him behind!_  Just my luck. Now I'll need to track them down again..."

Matt was ready to make his move; he just needed to get the ninja to stand still for a moment. Fortunately, he could do this and further his personal mission at the same time.

"Uh... speaking of bad luck," he asked, raising his voice ever-so-slightly to make sure he was heard, "I have a question."

His timing was just a little off, and she stopped half a foot closer than he had wanted her to. "What?" she growled.

He gulped. "See, I lost most of my memory not long ago," he explained slowly, shifting away from her. "Had... had we met before Ossa Trail?"

This apparently threw Sheena off-balance. "W-what? Why would you even ask that?!"

"Had we, or had we not?" Matt asked again.

She paused and shook her head. "No. Not that I remember."

Matt's brow wrinkled as he thought. "Huh."  _I had to have heard her name_ somewhere _..._  "Then, you wouldn't happen to be famous where you're from, would you?"

Apparently, this was the wrong question to ask. She scowled at him, and her hand moved to the sash around her waist. "What do you know about where I'm from?" she hissed.

 _Well, that was a bust._  "Iiiiiiii guess we're done here," Matt said, and he made his move. Propelling himself toward Sheena with his arms, he quickly unfolded his torso and legs to deliver a powerful, Exsphere-fueled kick with both feet to her abdomen.

It was even more effective than he had thought it would be; the ninja was thrown backward, flipping over the corner of the foot of the vacant bed and crashing into the table and chairs in the corner of the room.

Before Sheena could pick herself up again, Matt sprang out of bed and picked up his bill from its spot leaning against the wall. He did not approach her, but took up a position between the two beds with the bill's spike leveled at her. Adrenaline coursed through him; his heart pounded and his breathing intensified, and his blood still felt chilled. His idea had worked (the half that mattered, anyway).

"Now," he panted, "get out of my room!"

Without warning, the door to the room slammed open to admit the innkeeper, wrapped in a robe and visibly irate, with dark circles under her eyes. "What the blazes is going on in here?" she demanded as she surveyed the chamber by the light of the candle she had brought. Her eyes fell on Sheena as she stood from the debris of one of the wooden chairs, cradling her midsection with one arm. "Mister Matthew, what is the meaning of this?!"

Matt was about to answer when he realized it was not adrenaline that had made his limbs feel cold. He was in his sleeping attire - nothing but underpants. Instantly, and with his ears burning up, he held his weapon upright in a vain attempt to cover himself. He quickly played out the scene is his mind before answering. "She's an assassin, trying to get to the Chosen through me," he would say. The ninja would be apprehended and taken away, never to trouble him again, and... possibly executed.

Did he want that?

Although he did not want to lie about it, either...

He spared Sheena another quick glance; her clothing, of all things, and the exchange that had taken place so far gave him an idea.

"Phew," he breathed, allowing himself to shiver visibly. "I'm glad you're here, ma'am." He pointed at Sheena. "This woman just... showed up in my room, uninvited."

"Huh?" Sheena grunted. It was true, but that was a funny way to describe what had happened.

"Can you believe this?" Matt continued. "She just barged in and asked - no,  _demanded_  - something that, frankly, I can't give her."

Both the innkeeper and the assassin saw the obvious implications of what he was saying. The landlady stared daggers at Sheena and her revealing attire, while Sheena turned beet red with embarrassment and rage. "You sick, sneaky-"

"And get this," he interrupted. "She all but stated that she only came to me because I'm a friend of the Chosen. Can you  _believe_  that?"

The deed was done. The innkeeper pounced on Sheena and grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. "I have no tolerance for your kind in my inn, young lady!"

" _My kind?_ " Sheena echoed indignantly. "You've got it all wrong! I-"

"So what are you gonna do with her?" Matt inquired, picking up his blankets to cover himself and sitting back down on his bed.

Apparently, he was not exempt from the wrath of his host. "Something a bit more tame than damaging my property and then running her through in my skivvies, I can assure you!" she snapped.

Matt cringed. "Sorry about that. I'll... pay for it."

The innkeeper composed herself and sighed. "No, that won't be necessary. To answer your question, I'm handing her over to the militia to be imprisoned."

While Matt thought such news should be pleasing, he found the moment felt... soured by something. By what, though? He had not lied, everything he said had been true...

But what the innkeeper had  _heard_  was not.

He lowered his head.  _Oi. I'm sorry..._  "You know what? I don't know if that's necessary."

"What?"

"Come again?"

He glanced up at the two again. "I mean, coming in uninvited aside, she didn't actually  _do_  anything, really."

Sheena stared at him, taken aback, while the innkeeper sighed and rubbed her temple. Clearly, being awake at this hour was catching up to her. "Very well. Come with me, young lady," she instructed, and she began leading a slack-jawed Sheena toward the door. "Don't let me catch you in my inn again, understood?"

At last, Matt felt like he could relax again. This outcome seemed favorable; the inn was the only place he would be alone while in Palmacosta. She would not come after him again while he was there. Even with an Exsphere, he did not fancy getting hit with another of her exploding cards. With a sigh of relief, he spread the blankets over the bed as neatly as he cared to, and crawled back under them to sleep again.

 _... I still have that card of hers, don't I?_  he realized belatedly, and he propped himself up just long enough to crack the nightstand's drawer open. Sure enough, there was the paper seal he had found after Sheena had beaten him senseless.  _I wonder if she wants it back..._  By that point, he was too sleepy to put any more thought into it.

* * *

" _Ow!_ " Matt grunted as he was knocked to the ground yet again.

The officer observing the sparring match frowned. "Again," he ordered.

Matt did not get up for several seconds, however. The fall and the preceding blow had not hurt that much, but he had the violent urge to lash out and hurt someone or something. With his Exsphere supplying him with extra strength and an untold amount of mana in his body, he knew giving in to that impulse would be disastrous.

Day two of his training with the militia was turning out to be infuriating. The morning combat drills, you see, were helping him to learn the basic positions and movements of fighting with spears, expanding upon the basics Kratos had already taught him. However, he was given no instruction on how to string these movements together in battle, or how to defend against opponents who did so, and his lack of experience and formal training showed through when the one-on-one sparring matches began. The soldier he was sparring against always had control of the flow of battle, even when he gave Matt the first move. Given his lack of sleep thanks to Sheena's little visit the night before, he was not taking the situation at all well.

"I said 'again,'" the officer repeated.

 _Breathe in... and out. In... and out._  With two more deep breaths, Matt reined in his temper. He was still irritated with how things were going, but no longer felt compelled to break something. Thus composed, he pushed himself up and picked up his practice spear, ready to try again.

His opponent raised his spear, signalling that he, too, was ready.

 _Feinting hasn't worked so far... Guess I'll try skipping it this time._  With this in mind, he moved to stab at the soldier's left leg.

The soldier parried the blow, knocking aside the staff and leaving Matt wide open.

_Wuh-oh._

The soldier's wooden pole struck him on the ribs.

" _Ow!_ "

"Again."

Holding his bruised side, Matt seriously considered just turning around and walking away.

"Good morning, gentlemen!"

Matt, his opponent, the officer, and a few others nearby all turned to find Byron approaching from the city, and the mood instantly shifted. Matt grinned, glad for the distraction. "Mornin', Byron!" he called out with a wave.

"Ah! Captain!" the officer stammered. Matt might have guessed he was nervous, but when he took off his helmet he appeared pleasantly surprised instead. "What brings you out here?"

"I'm not a captain," the veteran replied brusquely, stone-faced. "I'm here to see how Matthew's training is progressing."

_Aw, great. An audience._

Byron glanced around, seeming to only just now notice several other soldiers he had not addressed watching him. "As you were!" he barked at them.

The errant warriors quickly got back to their sparring. Matt could have sworn he saw a hint of a smirk at the corner of the old man's mouth.

"Now, then," Byron continued, "mind showing me?"

"Not at all, sir!" the officer answered. "We were just about to begin another round of sparring." He looked once more to Matt and his soldier opponent; the former had relaxed at Byron's approach, and the latter was standing at attention. " _Ready!_ " he bellowed.

Matt snapped back into training mode and leveled his staff at the soldier, who mirrored his movement. Another level of irritation fell over his foul mood; he knew this was not going to go well for him, and he did not like the idea of the old warrior seeing him outclassed.

_Hope this doesn't make him think twice about traveling together._

"Begin!"

Matt immediately lunged at his sparring partner, trying to catch him off-guard with a quick thrust to the abdomen. His blow was sidestepped and countered with a jab to his chest before he could get his guard up. The bout lasted one full second.

"Again!"

Byron watched five more clashes, and after each one, Matt glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. The old man's stoic expression gave way to a frown each time Matt lost. Rather than angering him this time, the quick succession of losses was making him care less and less about the outcome, which only made each bout shorter and shorter. He was proving a disappointment to those watching; why draw it out?

"Sir," Byron finally cut in after the final match, "I'd like to speak with the commander for a bit."

Matt relaxed and planted the end of the practice spear on the ground, his irritation akin to glowing embers. He felt nothing but a dull anger on the inside and bruises forming on the outside. He watched lackadaisically as the officer led Byron further into the training field and out of sight among the sparring suits of armor, while his own sparring partner stood idly at attention, the sounds of soldiers training filling the silence as they waited.

It was no more than five minutes before they returned. Byron walked past Matt as if to return to the city, but stopped short and stooped to pick up Matt's bill from where he had stuck it in the ground at the start of training. "Come with me, lad," he ordered without looking at him, and he strode away from the field with the weapon over his shoulder. "And bring that staff with you."

The hot coals inside Matt fizzled out, and he turned his confused gaze to the officer. He got no indication that he should do anything different, so he trotted off after the old man.

They walked around Palmacosta toward the seaside in silence, leaving the shouts and clinking armor of the soldiers behind. They stopped near the place where the grassy plain gave way to the sand on the beach, with the tide crashing onto the shore a half mile away and seabirds flying nearby.

"Now." Byron suddenly halted and rounded on Matt, bill ready, stance lowered, and expression stern. "Let's get started."

Matt skidded to a stop and looked around at their surroundings. "Uh... get started on  _what,_  exactly?" he asked.

"They're training you like a soldier over there," the old man spat. "Teach you from the ground up and let you get beaten senseless until you learn. There are two problems with that: you don't have time to be trained that way, and a soldier isn't much use in a band as small as the Chosen's. So if you'll stop standing around and  _get to it_ ," he punctuated his words with a feint to Matt's feet that made him jump back, "I'll help you become a  _fighter_  instead."

"What's the difference?" Matt countered, but he pointed the training spear at Byron all the same.

"A soldier is a unit, just one piece of a much greater whole," Byron explained, relaxing for a moment but still speaking in a commanding tone. "They fight as parts of a machine, all moving in concert with each other. To train you as a soldier would mean having you un-learn everything you know about fighting and starting over, so that you fit into the whole just so. In the Chosen's company, you'll need to be able to adapt to the movements of your friends and enemies on the fly. Instead of teaching you a whole new, rigid way to fight, we're going to play to your strengths and build on them." The old man raised the bill yet again. "Now, show me your strengths!"

And so they trained for the remainder of the morning. Byron was even more skilled in spear combat than the soldiers in the militia, as Matt had expected. However, despite his age, he was also every bit as strong and as fast as them, and Matt could scarcely land a hit on him. On the bright side, unlike the instructors in the militia, Byron gave correction, instruction, and advice frequently, showing his own brand of enthusiasm as he taught.

"Lunging with a spear leaves you vulnerable!" he shouted unnecessarily. "You have the patience and the reflexes to beat this! Let your opponent make the first move, wait for an opening, and  _strike!_ " He took a swing at his pupil as he said this.

Matt danced out of the way of the attack and launched a thrusting attack at Byron's abdomen. The veteran was apparently expecting this; he twisted his weapon around and parried, and Matt's practice spear hit the empty space to his right.

" _Never_  hesitate when attacking!" Byron bellowed, whacking Matt in the side with the blunt end of the bill. "Either seize the offensive the  _instant_  you get your opening or stay on the defensive!"

Matt grunted at the hit and leaned on his staff for a moment while he held his ribs; it had not really hurt, but his mind told him it should have. "I thought staying on the defensive for too long was a bad idea," he groaned.

"And it is! Let your opponent keep control of the flow of battle, and you  _will_  mess up sooner or later! But if your strike isn't going to be _quick_  and  _decisive_ , you just keep going and wait for your next opening!"

Matt nodded once to acknowledge his tutor and assumed a battle stance once again, his growing collection of welts and bruises buzzing with discomfort. While Byron's method of teaching was starting to remind him of Kratos', he could also see some key differences. Aside from the night after Ossa Trail, Kratos typically restrained himself only enough to avoid causing any serious damage, whereas Byron hit him only hard enough to be sure he felt it. Furthermore, while both men were approximately equally stern teachers, Byron's loud demeanor had an unfettered intensity that Kratos lacked. Matt might have taken it for anger, but it occurred to him that the shouting actually made the old man seem more invested in his progress.

* * *

Despite Byron's impressive speed and strength, however, the exertion winded him after about half the time Matt would have been training with the army. It worked in their favor that day; they ended up stopping at the same time as the militia, anyway. Exchanging weapons, Byron walked back to the training field to return Matt's practice spear while Matt returned to the city for lunch and work. Rather than show him the ropes on a new set of chores, the innkeeper had him clean the kitchen once again. Once he was dismissed for the day, he met Byron and Delwyn at the pub to discuss their plans.

"Your say your companions will be at the House of Salvation about ten days from today, June 4," the young clergyman pondered, tapping a pencil on an open notebook on the table in front of him. The companions were seated at a corner booth in an attempt to avoid prying eyes and listening ears. "So we need to get there no later than June 14. Since the House is a three days' journey from here, we should leave on the eleventh, or even the tenth."

"We'll end up having to pay for two nights if we get to the House of Salvation a day early," Byron muttered, sipping from his mug.

Matt scratched his head. "Not necessarily. I'm the one who needs to be there to meet my friends. You two could go on without me after the first night."

Delwyn gave a barely audible sigh. "That would be prudent. I had hoped to get the chance to meet the Chosen, but I suppose-"

Byron gave a single, barking laugh. "Ha! You're stopping at Hakonesia Peak, aren't you? I guarantee the Chosen's group will be passing that way after the House of Salvation."

Matt grinned as the realization dawned on Delwyn's face. "Just be on the lookout for us and I'll be glad to introduce you," he chuckled.

For a moment, the priest looked like Christmas had come early, Matt thought. Delwyn quickly shook his head and put on a more subdued smile. "Well, first things first," he remarked. "We need to gather supplies. Do either of you have weapons?"

"I'll have one by this time tomorrow," the old man answered with a smirk.

"Mine's at the inn," Matt confirmed.

Delwyn nodded and struck an item off the list in his notebook. "Good. Except for food and medicine, which we would be better off acquiring closer to our departure... that just leaves us needing suitable clothing." He looked up at Matt again. "You should go to the tailor's and see if he has any long-coats."

"Long-coats?" Matt echoed, his brow wrinkling. "Isn't it getting kind of warm for that?"

"Perhaps," Delwyn confirmed. "However, the alternative is to carry a blanket on your back. It is better, in my opinion, to simply wear an extra garment that will keep you warm at night."

"Huh." The idea made sense; Matt shrugged in response. "I'll go check it out, then."

* * *

The next day was hotter and more humid than any other Matt had yet had in Palmacosta; summer was approaching its peak. Matt did not train with the city's militia at all that morning, but went with Byron again. The regimen was just as intense as it had been the previous day, but the muggy heat got the better of the old man halfway through the morning. Having little else to do until lunch, Matt decided to pay a visit to the tailor ( _Oi_ , he thought as he wiped the sweat off his forehead,  _who goes shopping for jackets in this weather?_ ). He knew he could not afford much, so he went in prepared to walk away either empty-handed or with the most worn-out piece of clothing in the world.

He failed to consider the consequences of his steadily growing reputation.

"I only wanted to see what you had!" Matt protested. "I didn't come here to mooch!"

The tailor, Claude, had recognized him on sight and, hearing he had come looking for a coat, quickly steered him into the back room to stand on a folding stool so he could take measurements. Claude continued his work despite his client's protests, moving quickly, expertly, and happily. He was about as tall as Matt, but the younger man noticed he was scrawny by comparison, and his black hair was starting to thin. "Nonsense! I'm giving you a gift, not being taken advantage of. Now hold your arms up, please."

Matt did as he was asked, but was not ready to back down yet. "If you had some old jacket you wanted to give away, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I might agree to a discount on something new. A brand-new,  _custom-made coat for free_  is too much!"

"You're thinking only of what you're getting out of this," Claude told him as he measured his right arm. "Believe me, doing this for you will - it's its own reward for me."

"How do you mean?" Matt wondered, lowering his arms while the tailor wrote on a notepad.

"Well, first of all, any chance to ply my craft - it's..." The tailor snapped his fingers as he searched for the right words. "It's more than making ends meet for me. I can - I get to  _make_  something with my own two hands, and seeing a finished piece - the only thing like it is seeing it put to good use." Although the tailor stumbled over his words somewhat, it was clear he felt deeply about what he was saying; his expression got a far-off look to it, and he gradually slowed to a halt as he explained himself.

The idea resonated with some part of Matt's mind, and although he did not understand why, he knew exactly what the tailor meant. "It's an art to you," he said simply.

Claude briefly pointed one finger at him as he got back to work, stepping through an open doorway. "Yes! Yes, that's it exactly. I'm making art, and then others use it, admire it, find joy in it."

Matt furrowed his brow. "OK, but don't you get that from just about everything you make? You couldn't make a living if you made people clothes just to make them clothes  _all_  the time."

The tailor returned to the back room with a stack of strange-smelling pieces of brown fabric. "No, of course not!" he answered as he set them down on a work table. "But that's where you come in!"

"Me? What do I-"

"The Chosen of Regeneration have always had friends and guardians go with them on their journeys," Claude interrupted, fetching a large sheet of paper and a pencil from a nearby desk. "Their very images become icons of hope during the journey, and ones of - of renewal! Yes, symbols of the rejuvenated world once the journey is finished. And there's never more than one in a lifetime."

Matt frowned. "I don't follow."

"Don't you?" Claude looked up from his work, his grin almost bright enough to light up a dark room. "I get to design and craft the outer garment of one such hero! How many tailors can claim  _that_ , I ask?"

A pit formed in Matt's stomach as it occurred to him once again what was at stake. Knowing some of what went on in a human ranch made him willing to risk his own well-being to see it stopped, and he knew that if and when he rejoined his friends, he would be expected to do his part, such as it was. The journey he was trying to embark on, however, also carried the hopes and expectations of seemingly  _everyone else in the freaking world_.

 _Well, shoot. No backing out now, I guess._  He immediately shook his head and gave himself a mental slap.  _Nope, nope, don't even think like that. I'm_ not _trapped in this, I wanted it. And I still do._

"Lamellar leather, Claude?" a woman's voice asked, and Claude's portly, dark-haired wife entered the room with a tray of light refreshments. "I hope you're planning to give it some color."

"Yes, Elena, I am," the tailor sighed, exasperated yet good-natured. "I happen to like Lamellar leather's natural color, but for this coat, something...  _eye-catching_  is only appropriate."

_Hmm... What color do I want? Wait - WAIT, it doesn't matter! I'm still not taking this thing for nothing._

" _YELLOW?_ " Elena's scandalized cry snapped Matt out of his private thoughts.

"Yellow... what?" he asked uncertainly.

"A yellow coat!" Claude proclaimed triumphantly. "None of the Chosen's companions was wearing yellow, so-"

Matt frowned and held up his hands like he was being threatened. "No, nononono  _no_. Yellow would look disgusting on me."

"Bright yellow clothing only complements certain skin tones and hair colors, you know that!" Elena said, practically scolding her husband as she approached the folding stool Matt was standing on. She appeared to study him rather closely, particularly his face. "This coat need not be eye-catching on its own; we need a color that makes the  _wearer_  stand out, as well."

Matt shifted uncomfortably, unsure how to respond when her eyes locked onto his. "Uh... What are you doing?"

"Claude," she called without breaking off her gaze, "did you see the color of his eyes?"

Matt frowned as the tailor moved to stand beside his wife. "My eyes? What about-"

"Why, 'Lena, they're  _green!_ "

"Do you realize how rare that is?!"

"Well, that's perfect! A green coat - it will bring out the color in his eyes-"

"-and a nice forest green will do the job while adding to the earth-tones of the rest of his clothes!"

"It's perfect, 'Lena,  _perfect!_ "

The couple embraced joyfully, and it would have been a sweet moment all around if they had not been carrying on as if Matt had not been standing two feet away. He stepped carefully down from the stool, taking pains not to get any closer to them. "I mean it," he stated loudly once he was a more comfortable distance away, "you don't need to do that for me. If you just had something old you wanted me to take off your hands-"

Claude released his wife to wave a dismissive hand at him. "Not another word about it! Come back in two days and your coat will be finished!" His eyes widened. "Oh, I have a better idea!" he exclaimed. "Come back tomorrow to have lunch and see what I have done, and let me know if anything isn't to your liking!"

"Splendid idea!" Elena agreed as she clapped her hands, as though it had been decided. "Now, then, you had best leave us for now," she told Matt, shooing him out of the store as she spoke. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

With that, Matt found himself deposited onto the street outside the tailor's shop, somewhat rattled by everything that had transpired, as the front door snapped shut like a clam shell. He walked back up to it and nearly went back inside to argue the point further, but he lost his nerve and thought better of it just before he took hold of the doorknob.

 _... Those guys don't hardly know a thing about me, and they won't even let me try to pay for a coat like a normal person?_ Sheepishly, he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked up and down the street to see if anyone had noticed his ejection from the shop. If any of the passerby had seen it, though, they had shrugged it off and gone on about their business. Matt followed suit and began making his way to the Palmacosta Academy for lunch.

 _Well, if they're gonna do this for me,_  Matt decided,  _I guess I'd better make sure I've earned it by the end of the journey._


	19. Base Jumping and Star Counting

The salty air under Palmacosta's cloudless sky warmed as the sun climbed toward its zenith. The wind was still, so Matt's new longcoat hung limp from his shoulders instead of billowing out behind him. It was a pity, he thought; the view of him from the street might have been as picturesque as his view of the city from the roof of the inn, four stories from the ground.

He felt his green sleeve again. It was soft to the touch, but he had learned since first hearing of Lamellar Leather that its toughness outclassed that of low-end metals. It would do little to nothing to protect him from blunt force trauma, but slashes and stabs would be impeded. Three buttons would let him close its open front when he desired, the sleeves had straps that could tighten or loosen them, a few pockets lined the garment's inside, and a hood he could pull over his head and down to his eyes hung unused at his back. Functionality aside, it looked  _good_. At least, it looked good to him, and Claude had looked proud of his work - and Elena of her husband - when Matt had first tried it on the day before.

 _Well, what do you know?_  he had thought as he beheld his reflection in the shop's man-sized mirror.  _I kind of look like one of them now._

Despite his protests, the tailor had been adamant in his refusal of payment. "It was my pleasure!" he had insisted. "And if the Regeneration succeeds this time, everyone in the world will owe you much more than that."

Again, Matt had gotten a sense of the looming expectations people would have for him as a companion of the Chosen, and a stray, panicked thought had screamed for him to drop the coat and run. He had simply shrugged it off and allowed himself a smirk. "Well, now I guess we'll  _have_  to finish it, huh?"

Tasteless, as far as jokes go, but making light of the subject somehow made it seem smaller.

After taking his leave of Claude and Elena that day, Matt had still had a couple of hours before noon, so he had decided to explore something that had been occupying his thoughts in his spare time: the new strengths his Exsphere granted him. He had had some idea of his limitations before being taken to the eastern ranch. Now, with his strength well on its way to being restored, he needed some way to determine what exactly he was capable of; not knowing at a crucial moment could prove disastrous.

It was this that had brought him up to the roof of the Skipper's Haven.

"Matthew!"

Matt startled and peered over the edge of the building down to the ground. A familiar gray head was staring up at him.

He grinned and waved. "Hi, Byron!" he called. "What's up?"

Byron cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted in answer: "It looks as though  _you're_  up! Now hurry up and get down, we're meeting Delwyn at the academy!"

 _Oh, right. Crud._  Matt nodded. "I'll be right down!"

Keeping his focus on the ground, he took a few steps along the edge of the roof until he was standing over a wide, open area free of pedestrians. He paused, calculating, psyching himself up for what he was about to do.

"Matthew, what are you doing?" Byron called after a few seconds, a note of urgency in his tone catching the attention of a few passers-by.

Without answering, and without looking at his mentor, Matt jumped off the roof.

Well, maybe "jump" is not the right word; he was not going for distance or height, just trying to avoid clipping the wall and the windowsills on the way down. More of a hop, then. That is beside the point, though.

The sensation of free-fall was not one Matt enjoyed. In fact, some primal part of him loathed it, was terrified by the feeling of weightlessness. As he fell, though, feet directly below him, knees slightly bent, arms raised to keep himself upright, and gaze fixed on his landing spot, the knowledge that he was in no immediate danger stirred in him something he had not felt since his appearance in the Triet Desert: exhilaration.

That jump was  _fun._

The fall lasted under two seconds, and a few high-pitched screams filled his ears in that moment. Just before he landed, crouched on all fours with his coat fluttering back down around him, a series of sights, sounds, and sensations leapt up in his mind:

* * *

_The people below him looked like insects now, they were so far away. He would die if he fell from this height. Human instinct dictated he should have been terrified, but he was not. He was... excited?_

_Something above him clicked, and he plunged toward the ground, silently taking in the thrill while others around him shrieked in various amounts of fear and delight..._

* * *

"What do you think you're doing, you blockhead?!"

The yelling snapped Matt out of his trance, wide-eyed and bewildered. Byron was squatting directly in front of him, face contorted with fury.

"You nearly gave me and half a dozen others a heart attack! Three days before we're set to leave, and you go trying to break your legs or crack your head open?! What's gotten into you, boy?!"

Matt held up a hand and shook his head, letting his gaze slip away from the older man. "Hold on, hold on..." He desperately tried to place his memory, fearing it might fade away before he could make sense of it; already, what little detail he had noted was blurring.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?!"

" _Will you just leave me alone!_ "

Byron recoiled. The damage was done on both parts; Matt could no longer quite recall what he had just remembered, and he blamed the older man for it. He knew he had not been in any danger, but not only was Byron getting in his face over it, he was distracting him from something infinitely more important than potential broken legs. He stood up and straightened out his coat.

"Come on, Delwyn's waiting," he said icily, and he started off for the Palmacosta Academy, ignoring the onlookers. He heard Byron start following him after a moment.

He counted it a small mercy that, once at the Academy's cafeteria, his instructor waited until they had all sat down to eat to tell Delwyn what had happened.

"He  _what?_ "

"Didn't you hear me? He  _jumped off the roof of the inn._ "

Matt struggled not to roll his eyes at Delwyn's look of shock and confusion. "I was perfectly safe," he griped. He was still focused on his nearly-remembered memory, and he wanted to get this meeting overwith as soon as possible so he could spend more time trying to recall it before work.

Delwyn and Byron, however, insisted on pursuing the inconsequential (as he thought it) subject of his little leap off the building. "Perfectly safe?" Byron echoed; he was still seething from earlier.

"First of all," Delwyn asked, " _why_ would you do such a thing, and second, how in the world did you not injure yourself?"

Matt slapped his Exsphere-hand down on the table, making his companions jump and drawing irritated looks from a few students seated nearby. "Because of this," he spat. "I figured out yesterday that I can jump up to the second floor window of the inn with it. I figure it  _might_  be important to get some idea of just how much I can take with this Exsphere, preferably  _before_  I actually need to." He found the astonishment of the other two men gratifying.

"Five meters?!" Delwyn exclaimed.

Byron, however, stubbornly remained irritated. "Then what made you think you could fall twelve meters and be no worse for wear?"

 _There's the stinking Metric system again. Does no one use Imperial around here?_  Matt folded his arms as he defended himself. "I'm guessing that's the height of the roof. For one thing, even without an Exsphere, I can fall further than I can jump. It only makes sense that it's still true with an Exsphere. Second, when I say I  _jumped_  up to the second floor, I also mean I  _fell_  that distance, and it felt like falling two feet instead of two stories. I started experimenting with how far I can fall last night, starting on the second floor and working my way up to the roof today."

Byron snorted and folded his arms, but Delwyn was intrigued by Matt's explanation. "Well... that  _sounds_  reasonable, all things considered."

 _THANK you!_  Matt gave a single nod. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

Delwyn, unfazed by the sudden change in topic, retrieved his notebook from his habit and studied it. "Let's see here. We need to decide how much traveling we intend to do each day, which will dictate how much time we have for hunting and, hence, how much food we will need to pack..."

Having to think about the details of the upcoming journey forced Matt to take his mind off his memory, and he calmed down as the meeting went on. Byron, however, remained obstinate toward him, only ever looking at him with disgust.

 _Come on, man,_ he wanted to say,  _you're usually a cool guy. Don't go turning into a crotchety old fart now._

"Is something the matter?"

"Don't think so."

"Carry on, friend."

Delwyn was not impressed by his companions' denial. "Then I suggest we meet again tomorrow evening," he said evenly. He tore two pages from his notebook and handed one to each of them. "That way, you will be able to do some shopping between training and work, Matthew."

Matt took his list and quickly looked over it; it mostly consisted of various foods, with a few odds and ends seemingly thrown in. "Sounds good," he agreed as he folded and pocketed it.

"Aye," Byron grunted, stuffing his own list into his pocket as he stood to leave. "Tomorrow, then. Good day, Delwyn." With that, he turned and walked out of the cafeteria.

"What's he so upset about?" Delwyn wondered. "I've never seen him like this."

Matt turned away from watching Byron leave to answer. "I dunno," he said with a shrug. "Something about when I jumped off the roof, I think."

Delwyn pursed his lips and nodded once. "Well, whatever it is, try to resolve it as soon as possible, will you? We ought to all be on good terms if we are to travel together."

Matt glanced at a clock on the wall as the priest spoke.  _Shoot, almost time for work._  "Will do," he answered hurriedly, getting up from his chair. "I'll also be sure to get that shopping done before tomorrow night. Gotta go, seeya later!" He gave a quick wave to Delwyn as he left.

He put little thought into the problem during the short walk from the academy to the inn, instead focusing on the locations of the various shops he passed. There was much to be done the next day, and he did not want to do any backtracking if he could avoid it. Once he got to the inn and reported for duty, however, his priorities were forcibly shifted.

"There you are!" the innkeeper announced when Matt entered the kitchen, more in the way of one with a grievance than someone expecting a friend.

Worried, Matt glanced to the inn's clock.  _Well, I'm not late..._  "Uh, yeah, here I am," he responded. "Is... something wrong?"

"Is something wrong?" she repeated. "You tell me! Several guests told me you jumped off the roof this morning! Is that true?"

 _This again?_  Matt held up his hands. "Yeah, I did - but I'm fine, I promise! My Exsphere-"

"I knew you were fine, I saw you walking away from it!" his boss shouted; the maids coming in and out of the kitchen were all pausing to stare now as they went about their chores. " _You_  might have come out unscathed, but you made a scene at  _my_  business and scared the living daylights out of everyone who saw it! I even had to speak with a soldier about it! Do you have any idea..."

Matt cringed and remained attentive as the innkeeper berated him and told him about all the trouble he had caused, but hearing again that he had scared people stuck out in his mind. Soon, he had subconsciously arrived at the answer to Byron's outrage toward him.

 _I scared_ him _, too... That's gotta be it._

* * *

The sun peeked over the hills on the horizon and bathed Palmacosta's walls with a pinkish-orange light as Matt readied himself to strike again. A short, narrow log stuck into the ground in front of him served as his opponent for the time being; he was not expecting Byron for a few hours yet.

The spike of his bill - more specifically a guisarme, as Byron had told him during a previous training session - gleamed in the light of the sunrise, but Matt's focus was elsewhere. His eyes were on his target, and his mind was on his underused mana. Imagining the feeling of the energy flowing out of him, he drew back his weapon and attempted to make it happen again.

" _Sonic Thrust!_ "

Partial success. His blow was definitely charged with a copious amount of mana; it seemed to drive his weapon forward and throw off his aim. The butt of his weapon glanced off the log, knocking it askew and taking off a chunk of bark.

 _Well, at least I hit it, I guess._  With a sigh to himself, Matt stuck his weapon in the ground and pushed the log upright again. He moved slowly; his thoughts from the preceding day and night still whispered in his mind and distracted him.

First, even though he had known at the time he jumped that he would land safely, Byron and everyone else who saw had not. The sight of someone seemingly attempting suicide would be traumatizing for anyone, but Byron was a war veteran. He, Matt realized, may well have seen any number of his comrades fall in battle against Magnius' Desians, or - God forbid - by their own hands. In light of this, the old man's anger at Matt's actions had been perfectly justified. Things might have gone more smoothly if-

"What brings you out here at this hour?"

Matt's attention returned to his surroundings; his teacher was watching him with a sullen expression, leaning on a pair of practice spears.

 _He's early, too._  Matt studied Byron's weapon for a moment, and then looked at the ground. "Ever have a hard time sleeping because you felt like garbage?"

Byron's wrinkled brow became even more wrinkled. "What are you talking about?"

Matt thought once more over what he wanted to say and took a breath. "Look. I wasn't really thinking about what you or anyone else would think when I was practicing with my Exsphere yesterday. I was just thinking about me, about pushing my limits. It... didn't even occur to me what it would look like to someone watching. So I'm sorry I scared you, and I'm sorry I snapped at you." In the brief silence that followed, he only looked up to finish adjusting his crude practice dummy.

"Why  _did_  you get so uptight?" Byron finally asked.

Matt finished what he was doing, plucked his guisarme out of the ground, and flipped it around in his hand to rest upright on the ground before facing his instructor again. He noted that curiosity coupled with irritation makes for an expression similar to one of suspicion. "While I was falling," he explained, "I remembered something."

"Oh?"

"I'm not sure what it was," Matt continued, "but it had something to do with falling." His grip on his bill tightened. "I started losing it the second I hit the ground."

Byron's eyes widened. "Ohh - was it a memory from before? One you had lost?"

Matt nodded. "I think so. But I'm not sure - it's gone now."

Byron's gaze softened as he put the pieces together. "So while you were trying to remember it, I was making a fuss and-"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Matt interrupted. "I deserved to get yelled at, and I shouldn't have acted like me forgetting something was your fault."

Having spoken his piece, he waited for Byron to give some kind of answer. The older man did not appear angry anymore, but he said nothing for a long while. Eventually, Matt grew tired of waiting and stepped back from his practice log, taking aim at it with the blunt end of his weapon. He took a breath to still his thoughts and focus on his target...

"Why are you holding it backwards?"

Matt nearly toppled over at the interruption, but managed to catch himself. "I don't want to get the spike stuck," he answered.

"Hmm."

Concentrating once again, Matt prepared himself and attacked the log. "Sonic Thrust!"

Impressively, the sheer force of the strike created a mild shockwave that rippled through the surrounding grass; however, he completely missed the log this time.

"... And that move," Byron inquired. "Does your Exsphere let you do that as well?"

Frowning at his failure, Matt rested his weapon on the ground again. "Yeah. It's called a tech. A special move charged with mana."

This made the old man more pensive than Matt had yet seen him. "Then a Key Crest not only renders an Exsphere harmless - it makes it an invaluable tool..." He shook his head. "No wonder the Desians are so powerful." His attention returned to Matt. "So where did you learn this 'tech?'"

Matt shrugged. "Lloyd and Kratos - the two swordsmen traveling with the Chosen - they both use it. Of all the techs I've seen, it looked like the easiest to learn."

Byron nodded and offered a practice spear to Matt. "I seem to remember them wielding their swords one-handed when we were rescued from the ranch."

"Yeah." Matt stuck his guisarme into the ground again and took the practice weapon without question. "Kratos uses a shield with his, and Lloyd uses another sword."

"Whereas you use one hand to guide the spear's movement, and the other to drive it forward. I imagine there are some crucial differences between their rendition of this tech and yours."

Matt's mood lightened at this; thinking and talking about some aspect of combat before practicing it tended to make the experience more engaging. He took this return to their routine as a sign that all was well again. "Well, for starters," he said with a smirk, "they usually hit their target when they do it."

Byron cracked a smile at the quip. "Not to worry, lad. You'll have that in common with them by the time we part ways."

Matt nodded appreciatively. "Anyway. Their weapons have shorter reach than mine, so they have to be closer to the enemy in order to use Sonic Thrust. But they also move faster than I do, and with Kratos' shield and Lloyd's extra sword, using it doesn't leave them as vulnerable for as long as it does to me."

"Good observations," Byron remarked. "You'll need to compensate for that vulnerability somehow if you want to use that move effectively."

"Yeah, I need to make darn sure I hit what I'm aiming at."

"Right. And the best way to improve your accuracy is to incorporate some proper technique into your spearmanship."

Matt clamped his mouth shut to keep any groans or complaints from escaping; this was by far the most tedious portion of his training.  _Aaaand there goes the fun._

The old man moved to stand beside Matt and aimed his own weapon at the log. "Ready when you are."

The thought to walk away and learn his own way crossed Matt's mind, but was quickly followed by his memory of Lloyd and Kratos' first sparring session. He could not quite picture himself in either of their places; he knew perfectly well he was not strong, fast, or skilled enough for that.

But he wanted to be.

Wordlessly, he took up a position beside his mentor, and he performed Sonic Thrust so many times that he would have quickly lost count if he had bothered to keep it in the first place. All the while, Byron made numerous fine adjustments to his posture and movements between strikes.

* * *

Midnight had already passed when Kratos, still on watch while the others slept, heard the crunch of grass bending under someone's feet. Reflexively, he reached for his sword, stopping himself before he actually pulled it from its sheath. The footsteps were coming from within their camp.

He did not have to guess who the insomniac was.

The mercenary sighed to himself. While he could not help but sympathize with the young Chosen's plight, he wished she were not so restless. It would not be suspicious if she disturbed the others from their sleep once or twice; if it became a regular occurrence, they would realize something was amiss.

As he had feared, the noise caused Noishe to stir and whine beside him, which, in turn, woke the creature's master.

"Colette?" Although Lloyd whispered, Kratos could hear him all too clearly.

The footsteps stopped. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Lloyd!" Colette whispered frantically. "I didn't mean to wake you!"

"Nah, it's okay." Kratos raised an eyebrow. Lloyd must have been especially tired if he was not protesting her apologies. The grass rustled as the teen sat up. "Why are you still up?"

"I... I'm really tired," Colette lied, "but I can't sleep for some reason."

"You should still try to get some rest," Lloyd yawned. "When I can't sleep, I just think of Professor Sage's math lessons."

If Kratos  _had_  been asleep, Colette's stifled laugh would have woken him up. "I've been counting the stars."

Lloyd's disbelief was palpable; Kratos pictured him looking up at the sky. "The stars? All of them?!"

"No," Colette answered. "There are too many for me to count them all." She paused for a moment. "Do you think shooting stars count?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, the professor says they're not the same thing as the stars that are there every night, and they come and go so fast-"

"Well, those are the best kind."

Kratos nearly craned his neck around to see whether Lloyd was joking or not.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Colette asked.

Lloyd stretched as he lay back down in his place, probably to more easily look up at the stars. "The stars that are there every night will always be there for people to count. But a shooting star... You might be the only one who will ever see it. So it's like having your own special star. Even if you'll never see it again, it's yours to remember and treasure...  _Whoa._ "

" _Wow!_ " Colette breathed.

Kratos looked up at the dark sky just in time to see a brilliant white streak of light wink out of existence.

"There goes another one," Lloyd whispered happily. "A shooting star... just for you..."

And just like that, the teen was lightly snoring again.

"... No, Lloyd," Colette whispered. "Just for us."

She lingered for a little while longer before padding away to her own spot, while Kratos continued to stare out into the night. He knew Lloyd meant well, and his perspective had caught him by surprise. But had the boy known what kind of future awaited Colette, he would have realized how much harder he was making it for her.

 _Actually,_  Kratos thought,  _if Lloyd knew what was coming, he would be furious._

* * *

Colette was not the only one who had trouble sleeping that night. Matt's slumber was light and restless, and interrupted by a nightmare in which he was being held captive by the Desians again. Hence, the night passed slowly for him. When morning came, however, he was well past ready for it.

At the city gate, Delwyn shut his bag and hung it on his back with his bow and quiver. "Do we have everything?"

"Yeah, unless one of you two dropped something," Matt replied. He caught himself fidgeting in place and forced himself to stop.

Byron adjusted the pack hanging from his shoulders and winced. "Hmph. It certainly  _feels_  like we have everything," he griped. "If we don't start soon, I might yet change my mind and stay here."

"You heard the old guy," Matt said to Delwyn as he strode through the gate and into the field. "Let's get going already!"

"Careful, lad," Byron warned as he started after him, "or else learn to sleep with one eye open!"

Delwyn just chuckled to himself and followed them.

Matt looked back at the city's clock tower as they went. He had awoken at sunrise, and it was nearly ten in the morning now, but at last they were on their way. Not that he had been idle during that time.

* * *

Even after just six days of learning under Byron, Matt had made significant progress. The veteran was still far more skilled, but thanks to his enhanced speed and reflexes, Matt could now duel him to a standstill, with neither of them hitting his opponent. In addition, Byron had helped him both develop a brand-new, easy-to-use tech and helped him on his way to mastering Sonic Thrust.

In his restlessness, Matt had decided to practice the move one more time on the morning they were to leave Palmacosta. The postures and movements Byron had taught him still felt somewhat unnatural, and he wanted to purge that feeling before he tried to use Sonic Thrust in battle.

Matt glared at his practice log, now chipped and dented all over from previous direct hits with the practice spear. He aimed with the blunt end of his bill once more, mentally reciting everything he needed to do before attempting it.

" _Sonic Thrust!_ "

With one last hit, the log burst into splinters.

XXX

*knock knock knock*

"Come in."

Matt pushed the door to the innkeeper's office open and hung on the doorframe as he leaned into the room, not actually stepping inside. "Good morning," he said to her.

His boss glanced up at him before returning her focus to the accounting books on her desk. "Mr. Matthew. What is it?"

"I, uh..." Matt shrugged. He had never resigned from a job before (not that he could remember) and was unsure of how to go about it. "I just figured I should let you know I'm heading out soon."

"Whatever for?" she asked as she scribbled something with her pencil. "You told me last week you'd be leaving today, and Mr. Kratos told me you'd probably be leaving around this time even before that."

Matt shrugged again. "OK. Well, I'll just be going, then. I turned in the key to the room already."

"Good." When she said nothing more, Matt started to leave, only to stop himself when she spoke again. "Should you find yourself in Palmacosta and in need of work again, we'll have your position available for you. There might be a promotion in it for you if you learn any useful skills."

Matt's surprise at this made him only belatedly realize she had just called him a satisfactory unskilled worker.

 _If I'm good at unskilled labor,_  he thought dismally,  _what does that make me?_

XXX

"Thank you again!" Matt called over his shoulder as he left the tailor's shop.

"And thank  _you_ ," Claude answered, "and safe travels!"

The bell rang as Matt closed the door, and he inspected his new gloves again. He had had to order them custom-made so they would accommodate his Exsphere and Key Crest, but the result was worth the short wait. They were made of Lamellar Leather, like his coat, but dyed black. The fingers were cut off at his knuckles, and the back of the left glove had a hole that fit around his Key Crest and a slit that let him pull it on over his Exsphere. This time, at Matt's insistence, Claude had accepted payment for them.

Satisfied, he picked up his guisarme from the wall of the building and started walking toward the city gate. As he did, he felt something catch the end of his coat.

"Wait, mister!"

Matt turned and looked down, and his heart skipped a beat.

The little boy who had thrown stones at Magnius was looking up at him.

_He's not dead?!_

"Are you dah Shosen's friend?" the boy asked him, eyes wide.

It took him ten full seconds to find his tongue. "Uh... yeah, I am."

The boy nodded, and put on a more serious expression. "Daddy wanted to tell her tanks for getting him out of the ransh, but everyone says she's gone away now. Can you tell her tanks for him?"

Matt nodded slowly. "Yeah, I can do that. What's your name?"

"I'm Simon!" he said with a grin.

"Simon." Matt squatted down to the boy's level, studying his face more closely. "Aren't you the one Magnius hit last time he was here?"

Simon's smile broadened and he nodded vigorously. "Yep! I trew rocks at him and made him mad, so he punshed me really hard in dah head and made me sleep. It hurt really bad, but dah elf lady made it go away. Daddy still feels bad, dough, so he said I had to find you so you can tell dah Shosen tanks for bringing him back."

 _So Raine saved him,_  Matt realized, and he broke out in a grin of his own.  _Of course she did._  "Well, I'll go tell her for you," he said. "Now, you should head back home and make sure Daddy feels better soon, OK?" He gave in to an impulse to muss up the boy's hair.

Simon fought off his hand, but his smile remained. "Yep, I will! Tanks, mister!" His mission apparently complete, he scampered off down the street.

* * *

"I think I'm gonna miss this place a little," Matt thought aloud, and he turned away from the city to face the road. "I'll have to see if I can come back sometime."

"Aye," Byron mused, "this place was my home for many years. I'm not certain I'll live to see it again. If you think you can, you ought to."

"You served Palmacosta well, Master Byron," said Delwyn. "You more than deserve rest in this last stage of your life."

The old man gave a bark of laughter. "My wife said as much, and I said so last time I tried to make this journey."

Matt shuddered at the thought of his and Byron's respective captures by the Desians. "Well, with no Desians between here and Asgard," he reasoned, "we shouldn't have a problem this time."

"We can only hope," Byron grunted.

"We can hope, and we can pray," Delwyn asserted.

"Good idea," Matt agreed.  _Just not to Martel..._


	20. Ways Part, Ways Unite

Live long enough, and you will realize it sometimes takes very little to dampen a good mood. Literally. A rainy day can do it very quickly.

"If nothing else," Delwyn had to shout over the falling raindrops, "bandits are unlikely to be watching the road in this weather."

"True," Byron confirmed. "They'll be waiting out the storm in some warm, dry hideout."

"I think that makes them the smart ones," Matt grumbled, shivering as he walked. He had been the first to pull his hood over his head when the first raindrops had appeared a few hours earlier. Now, it was raining steadily and thunder rolled in the distance. The water rolled right off his coat and kept him mostly dry, but the garment did nothing to keep water out of his boots and gloves. On top of that, the air was chill and left him cold even underneath the coat.

He glanced over his shoulder at his two companions behind him. Byron was hooded and cloaked, but it appeared partly soaked with the continued rainfall. Delwyn, meanwhile, had donned a poncho over his habit, but the hat he refused to take off while traveling was of absolutely no help.

Sighing, Matt looked down and to the sides of the dirt road. The three of them had traveled much faster than the pilgrimage group had up until this point, but with this weather, they would need to stop soon. The problem was, with the restricted visibility the rain caused, he could see no place they could take shelter.

The priest guessed what he was thinking. "If we continue," he offered, "then before nightfall, we should come across a grove of trees we can wait out the storm in."

"How far is it?" Matt asked.

"A few more miles," said Delwyn, "if I'm right. It's a popular pilgrimage rest stop."

"Then let's hurry up and get there," Byron urged, and he picked up his pace until he had taken the lead. Matt sped up to follow him, despite the feeling of foreboding in the back of his mind.

They forged onward; the weather showed no sign of changing, to Matt's annoyance.  _If this rain doesn't let up,_  he realized,  _we won't be able to have a fire tonight. That'll mean cold food for dinner... Wonder if the trees will even be able to keep us at all dry. Man, this bites. Almost as bad as the Triet Desert... Well, maybe not. At least we have a road here. And it hasn't turned to mud. That's good. Yeah, this could be worse. It could have been like..._

Torrential rain. Howling wind. Flooded streets. Hail stones the size of billiard balls. Blinding lightning and ear-splitting thunderclaps. The kind of storm that makes even grown men locked safely in their homes wary. It flashed before his eyes and filled his ears as if it were actually happening then and there.

Matt closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, the tempest was gone; the rain he and his friends were walking in was downright mild by comparison.

"Yep," he announced to himself, slightly shaken by the intensity of the memory. "It could definitely be worse."

Apparently, the others overheard him. "Things could  _always_  be worse, Matthew," Delwyn pointed out.

"Aye, but there's no need to go saying so," Byron muttered.

Gradually, the gray skies darkened, and when they finally spotted the trees through the wet haze, it was clear there would be little to no daylight left by the time they reached them. Byron set the pace, huffing and puffing along at a surprising pace for one his age, while Matt and Delwyn stayed close behind to keep an eye on him.

Finally, as the light was beginning to fail, they arrived at their rest stop. The grove stood a few hundred feet to the side of the road, and they only left the road to wade through the knee-high grass to the trees once they were alongside them. As they got closer, Matt slowed down until he stood rooted in place just outside the reach of the branches. A stomach-churning stench from within the grove hit him like a wall.

A deep pit formed in his stomach. He knew exactly where he was again.

"Oh, Martel..." he heard someone murmur

The thought of what he might see making him nauseous, Matt reluctantly walked under the boughs of the trees. Contrary to his expectations, the treetops did a lot to shelter the ground from the rain, but sleeping out in the open suddenly seemed preferable to coming back to this place.

He found Byron and Delwyn frozen in their tracks, standing aghast at the graveyard they had stumbled into. Dozens of skeletons, covered only in tattered strips of cloth, lay scattered on the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?" Byron breathed.

Matt gripped his guisarme with both hands, leaning on it heavily as he shuddered from head to toe. "It's them. The tour group I was with when the Desians captured me."

There was a long silence, in which the only wound was the rain sprinkling the grove and watering the plain outside. Delwyn slowly fell to his knees and bowed his head while Byron moved through the grove, staring, horrified, at the bones. Matt simply stayed where he was, trying not to throw up.

"How many did they kill?" Byron finally asked, standing over a cluster of smaller bones, clearly missing several parts.

Matt shook his head. "One other was captured - the tour guide. She was taken to another ranch. No one- no one else got out alive."

The veteran's spear quivered in his hand. "They've been picked clean by monsters... There were  _women and_   _CHILDREN HERE!_ " And with that cry of rage and anguish, he whirled around and hurled his spear into a tree trunk; it stuck fast, the shaft shaking at the impact.

His outburst startled Matt enough that his nausea was forgotten. Delwyn, completely unfazed, stood up from his praying position to approach Byron and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I could have stopped this," the old man whispered.

_What?_  Matt's eyes met Delwyn's; he knew they were equally confused by this. "Uh... Byron," he said carefully, "even if you had been free when this happened - even if you had been here - there were dozens of them-"

"No." Byron shook his head. "No, I could have stopped this years ago. That Dorr..."

Matt's eyes widened, and his stomach seemed to drop from its place. "You knew?!" he blurted, and he immediately covered his mouth.  _Whoops._

Byron looked at him in surprise, and Delwyn did not miss a beat. "Knew what?" he asked, growing even more concerned.

_Crap. I can't tell them... can I?_  "Well, uh..." Matt shifted uncomfortably. "I... guess it'll probably come out sooner or later. But still, you shouldn't tell anyone until then - especially not the people of Palmacosta. If anyone does, it should be Neil." He took a breath. "The Desians used an Exsphere to turn Dorr's wife into a monster and demanded his cooperation in exchange for a cure."  _Jeesh, is this my life now?_

Delwyn frowned. "Cooperation?"

Matt nodded. "They extorted him for money - he paid them with Palmacosta's taxes. They set a trap for my friends, and he had them walk right into it."

With another shout that made Matt cringe, Byron fell to his knees and pounded the ground with his fists, releasing a stream of curses. No one said anything more until he stopped, trembling with fury.

"I had known Dorr was more complacent with the Desians than he pretended to be," he said in a deadly tone. "After he took office, I petitioned the city council to name him Governor only and let a leader of the militia be named General. They refused. I would not have guessed Dorr was actually in bed with our enemies. If I had known that... Someone in Palmacosta's government might have listened to me." His hostility faded and gave way to defeat. "I would have been more persistent. I would not have let the matter rest until the title of General and control of the militia were given to someone else."

The sight of his mentor in this state shook Matt. As a slave in the ranch, Byron had appeared subdued, but even after two years his captors had not yet broken him. Now here he was, a free man, the region's Desians defeated, and Matt had never seen anyone more broken.

_That... He couldn't - he didn't - that's not..._  "Oi," he sighed, and he let his bill fall and sat on the ground with his head in his hands, trying to put his gut reaction to words.

Delwyn beat him to the punch. "No, friend," he murmured. "You carry no blame in this. You could not have known what was happening; you could not have known the consequences of it; and we can never know what otherwise would have been. This is the fault of the Desians and those who conspire with them. You are as much a victim of theirs as these poor souls."

Byron shut his eyes and sighed. "Not yet, I'm not."

Silence reigned over the grove again, each man confronting his own demons.

_We can't know what would have been,_  Matt repeated to himself.  _How do you make any choice with that in mind? ...I guess... you just do what's right, and do your best. God, help me do this..._

Delwyn broke the quiet first. "These people are with Martel now." Matt winced. "We should see that their remains get the respect they deserve."

Byron looked up at him. "You can't mean to bury them all? We didn't bring any tools for this kind of work."

"But we can start it," the priest said firmly. "Besides, we still need a place to sleep tonight. If you two will gather all the bones together, I will prepare our evening meal. When we reach the House of Salvation, I will tell the priests what happened here. They will see that the burial is completed."

Matt's stomach churned as he looked at his hands.  _Just had to go with fingerless gloves, huh?_  "...OK."

* * *

It was gruesome work, and Matt had to run off to vomit and get some fresh air once. To make things worse, night had completely fallen, and they both had to carry torches to make sure they found all the remains, but they did it. Toward the end, to distract himself from their task, Matt asked Byron: "So, that thing about Dorr..."

He did not look up to see Byron's reaction, but he heard him suddenly freeze up.

"Is that why you retired?" he finished.

"... No," Byron finally answered, and he resumed working. "I retired because my wife made me promise to."

"You haven't said much about her," Matt observed. "Why'd she make you promise that?"

The old man sighed again. "From the time I was a young man, my life was devoted to Analyse and to Palmacosta, via the militia. Don't misunderstand, she was proud of me for it, and her... her love and support... She truly was my rock during my years as a warrior."

Matt glanced up; Byron's eyes had a sad, far-off look to them. "Then," he continued, "five years ago, her health began to fail. She started to think about my life without her in it. What I would do if I returned home from battle to an empty house. Bless her heart, Ana made me promise to leave the militia behind when she died. 'You've fought for peace for this city for as long as I've known you,' she said. 'Soon, you will be the one in need of peace, and they cannot give it to you.'"

_Wow. That's kinda intense._  "She... sounds amazing. I'm sorry for your-"

"No need, lad," Byron interrupted. "Ana was suffering daily by the end. She has her peace now."

_...What if you're wrong?_  Matt thought sadly; he could not bring himself to ask.

Byron put the last few bones in the pile they had made at the far end of the grove. "Besides," he said as they walked back to the fire Delwyn had made, "if I did not fall in battle, then old age would have forced me to give it up sooner or later. Better to put my spear to rest of my own accord."

Matt shrugged. "Yeah, that makes se- _ow!_ " He jammed his toe against something hard and heavy. Lowering his torch so he could see the ground better, he noticed what appeared to be a round, fist-sized stone. He nearly shrugged it off and walked on, but absently decided to move the thing so no one else would kick or trip over it. When he picked it up, however, he found it was too heavy to be anything but metal, and a cord that had been hidden in the dirt came up with it.

Realization hit him, and his mood darkened further. "Enzo," he murmured.

"Did that belong to one of the pilgrims?" Byron asked him somberly.

"Yeah." Matt pulled the cord up and found that the bola was still intact. "This must be where they killed him," he realized, remembering that a Desian had cut the other one from Darnal's neck. "That means I must have been... over there," he said, pointing his torch at a particular tree near the edge of the grove, only dimly lit by their cook fire. He could remember it clearly now: he had been sleeping under that tree when the Desians had attacked. He had first "met" Phos there, and that...  _scum_  had had the bright idea to take him alive, leaving behind his-

"...  _Oh!_ " Hanging the bolas over his shoulder and handing his torch to a confused Byron, he trotted quickly and carefully to the base of the tree. Sure enough, there in the dirt was his bag, and lying nearby was his quarterstaff. He nearly panicked when the bag felt much lighter than it should have been.

_Where could it have -?! Wait - no, I didn't put it away last time I used it. I left it..._  He promptly dropped the bag and the bolas and jumped up into the lower tree branches. To his relief, nestled between two branches that formed a V-shape, he found his journal.  _Here._

"What's gotten into you?" Delwyn asked as he ran and slid to the fire with his recovered belongings. "Did those belong to the deceased?!"

"They're mine," Matt said simply, brushing dirt and leaves off his journal. He dug through his bag until he found his pencil and flipped through his journal to the first blank page.

XXX

June 10

A lot has happened since I last wrote anything here, so I'd better start where I left off. On the night of May 21...

* * *

The rain stopped in the middle of the night, and the three of them left the grove behind the next morning. The vivid colors of the sky, trees, grass, and wildflowers did a lot to lift Matt's spirits as they went, contrasting with the way his journal and Enzo's bolas weighed his bag down. At times, he walked in silence, either busying himself with his thoughts or simply appreciating his surroundings; at others, he would talk with Byron and Delwyn about this and that. Byron had some gripping war stories to relate, and Delwyn would sometimes offer his own observations on life, which Matt often found hard to disagree with.

They passed two days in this manner without incident, until someone approached them on the road in the afternoon of the second day.

"No one told me there were freaking  _dinosaurs_  here!" Matt exclaimed.

Byron gave him a confused look. "What's a dinosaur?"

Matt pointed at the knight riding toward them - more specifically, at his steed. "That thing!"

"Matthew, that creature is called a Velocidragon," Delwyn corrected him, stringing his bow while keeping a careful eye on the stranger.

"Velocid-" Matt shook his head, not caring to argue about it. Delwyn could call it whatever he wanted; he knew a dinosaur when he saw one, and in that moment his excitement knew no bounds. Here was one of the creatures that had sparked his imagination like none other as a child, in person  _and_  in the flesh.

_Aren't they supposed to be extinct?_

Before he could wonder any more about it, the armored figure atop the Velocidragon drew a sword and urged his mount into a charge.

"Move!" Byron ordered.

They scattered. Matt dodged to the creature's left to avoid its snapping jaws, nearly bowling over Delwyn as he did.

"Watch yourself!" the priest admonished.

"Sorry," he said, keeping his eyes on their enemy. He had not been in a real fight since escaping the ranch, about two weeks ago. On one hand, this was an opportunity to put his training to the test. On the other, there was little to no room for error; their lives and well-being were at stake.

The rider wheeled the Velocidragon around to the right to make another pass at Byron. The old man held his ground until the knight was almost level with him, then stepped out of range of his blade and reached up to catch him across the chest with his spear. The knight fell out of the saddle and to the ground with a cry and a metallic crash while his mount skidded to a stop, craning its elongated neck to see where its rider had gone.

"All right!" Matt cheered, and he thrust his bill into the air. At the same moment, the heavily armored knight rolled off his back and to his feet to avoid another blow from Byron, and the dinosaur spotted its master and moved to aid him. It was too soon to celebrate.

"I'll take this one!" Byron shouted as he and the knight circled each other. "You two keep that dragon away from me!"

_Does that mean we have to kill it?!_  The very idea of killing a living dinosaur gave Matt pause.

"Understood!" Delwyn answered. Matt looked back at him just in time to see him loose an arrow that pierced the animal's flank. Its attention snapped to them, and it made an unearthly snarling sound and charged them.

Matt quickly found his reservations about destroying such an amazing creature had vanished.

"Whoa!" He immediately raised his guisarme and got the weapon between himself and the Velocidragon, and the creature quailed and roared. "Back! Get back!" he yelled, backing up his words with short, quick jabs.

It took one step back, then another. Matt followed, thinking he was successfully pushing it back.

Then a ball of fire shot from its mouth.

" _AAH!_ " Acting on instinct, Matt raised one arm to shield his face from the flame; he felt a flash of searing heat where the blast hit his sleeve. "OK, fine, it's a dragon!" he admitted frantically.

Another arrow from Delwyn flew past his head and stuck in the dragon's shoulder. It bellowed and rushed forward, jaws gaping. In the instant it crossed the distance between them, Matt noticed its eyes for the first time. They were black, with yellow slits for irises, and at the moment, they were  _livid_.

The image stuck in his mind even as he raised his polearm to block. Sharp teeth clamped down on it and nearly yanked it from his hands. Matt tried to twist his weapon out of its grip, but the dragon would not yield.

As they played this deadly game of tug-of-war, an arrow embedded itself in the Velocidragon's side. An instant later, the creature jerked its head to the side, tossing Matt away. The world spun around him, and he landed flat on his back, nearly dropping his guisarme.

"Agh!" Lights like sparks danced before his eyes as he jumped up to his feet. He blinked them away as he looked around, and he saw Byron knock away the knight's shield and stab at his sternum. Their enemy toppled over with a grunt, the metal plating on his chest caved in.

"Matthew! Assistance, please!"

Matt turned his focus to Delwyn. The priest was running in zig-zags across the field, trying to nock an arrow, with the dragon in hot pursuit.

His eyes narrowed, and he sprinted, intending to intercept the dragon and broadside it with Sonic Thrust.

He failed to account for his increased speed.

_THUD_

"Oof!"

"Whoops!"

Matt barreled right into Delwyn and sent him sprawling to the ground.

The sudden movement gave the dragon pause - just long enough for him to have another idea.

He leveled his bill at the creature and thrust it forward as it turned aside and aimed a kick at him. "Phalanx!"

The mana he poured into the tech manifested as an array of long, sharp spikes that formed a wall just past the end of his weapon and impaled the dragon's foot.

A sound like grinding steel grated against Matt's ears as the Velocidragon screeched in pain and drew back. Matt smirked when it hobbled on its injured foot, and he maintained his Phalanx, silently daring the beast to try again.

Imagine his dismay when it instead launched another fireball that passed right through his defense and blasted his face.

" _AGH!_ " He fell backward; his skin felt like it was on fire, and rancid smoke stung his eyes and nostrils.

Expecting to be attacked while he was down, he rolled to one side (not easy to do while holding his weapon) and pushed himself up into a crouch, trying to blink away his blurry vision.

He was just in time to see Byron bury the point of his spear in the dragon's shoulder. The old man yanked his weapon free and stepped out of the way of the falling monster, barely avoiding getting flattened under it.

"Are you two all right?" he asked, looking first to Delwyn, and then to Matt. He blanched and put a hand to his mouth. "Matthew, you've been burned!"

"Huh?" Matt felt the side of his face with his fingertips. He gasped through clenched teeth at the searing pain, and he took his hand away. His fingers were wet with a mixture of blood and some clear fluid.

His stomach seemed to drop down from its place, and his head started spinning.  _Oh my gosh, how bad is it?!_  "Gel! I need an apple gel!" he cried, dropping his guisarme and scrambling to get his bag off his back.  _Can a gel fix this? Will it be permanent?!_

A gelatinous orb appeared in front of him and he froze.

Delwyn offered him the apple gel again. "Take it."

"Thanks," Matt said quickly, and he took it and ate it. As soon as the last of the medicine was gone, he could feel it starting to work; the pain was replaced by an intense itching. He picked up and gripped his bill with both hands to keep himself from scratching.  _It'll be over soon, and I'll be good as new..._

He told himself this for about a minute while his companions watched the process. Finally, just as the staring was getting uncomfortable, Byron shook his head. "Looks like this will take a while. We should keep moving."

Dread edged its way into Matt's mind. "What do you mean? Is it that bad?"

"Not to worry," Delwyn answered, unstringing his bow. "It may require more than one gel, but it looks as though you will fully recover soon. The House of Salvation is near; it will be safer to continue now and let you finish healing once we're there." He clapped Matt on the shoulder and started walking again.

Matt was about to follow when something moved in the corner of his eye. He turned around to see the dead Velocidragon, its hide stuck with arrows and its eyes lifeless. The knight who had been riding it was kneeling beside it, his ruined breastplate cast aside. He looked up at Matt, his expression hidden behind his helmet.

Unsure how to respond, Matt just looked away and hurried on down the road.

* * *

XXX

...It took two more gels, but I'm fully healed now. Everywhere that was burned - basically everything from my eyes down to my neck - is super smooth now, too. I'm just glad the thing missed my eyebrows; all the other hair on my face was burned off, and the gels didn't make it grow back. I hope it starts coming back before Lloyd and the others get here. After all the babyface jokes I made about him, I'd never hear the end of it if I suddenly couldn't grow a beard, either.

Anyway, back to the House of Salvation. I think I've figured out why it feels so off. The lore about Mithos sacrificing himself, Martel worship, the priests, the relics they keep - it all reminds me of Catholicism. Now, I'm not a Catholic, even though my beliefs have a lot in common with theirs, but that's not the reason. It's hard to explain, but it's almost like the Church of Martel is based on Catholicism somehow. Uncanny - that's the word I've been looking for. The similarities to the Catholic Church - and Christianity as a whole, to some extent - are uncanny. One answer, a dozen new questions. I guess it's something, though.

Enough of that for today. Byron and Delwyn are heading out tomorrow morning, and the others should get here in the next day or two. I'm not sure what I'll do until then, but I'll have plenty of time to write some more, probably. Although, if nothing happens, I don't think I'll write about it. Either way, 'til next time.

XXX

Matt shut his journal and looked out from his seat by the doorstep to the sunset on the horizon. The priests maintaining the house had provided dinner for everyone staying there that night, and he had come out here once he was finished so he could write in peace.

"Any change?"

Well, it had to end sometime.

Matt looked up as Delwyn emerged from the doorway. "No, not really," he answered with a shrug. "I think the smokey smell is going away."

Delwyn nodded and leaned against the doorpost next to him. "Small blessings," he said. "Easy to overlook."

"But hard to ignore once you notice them," Matt added, looking back to the setting sun.

"Very. That's why they make for such good reminders that Martel watches over us."

_Ugh, this again..._  Matt gave no answer, choosing to sit in silence and perform the thousand yard stare.

"You don't believe that, do you?"

Matt startled and snapped his focus back to the priest, who was watching him intently.

Seeing Matt's reaction, Delwyn broke off eye contact and sat down where he was. "There's no need for alarm," he said. "It's no secret that some doubt the teachings of the Church. It's just surprising that a friend of the Chosen would be one such skeptic."

Matt scratched the back of his head. "I guess that  _is_  kind of ironic," he agreed. "What gave me away?"

Delwyn chuckled. "Little things that are hard to ignore once you notice them. You tend to fall quiet when someone mentions Martel or the Church."

_Huh... Guess I'm a bit of an open book, after all. Man, if I ever need to lie for this mission, we're screwed._  "Well," Matt sighed, "since you asked, no. I don't believe in Martel."

"Then what  _do_  you believe?" Delwyn asked.

Matt paused. The idea of having this conversation had scared him for some time, but short of walking away, he saw no way out of it.

_...Here goes nothing._  He took a breath. "Well... I believe... that we live under a curse. A curse the first people brought down on themselves. I believe in an all-powerful Creator who made everything there is, who became a man and gave his life to save us from that curse - only to come back from the dead. I believe that believing all of that is the key to salvation. That's... that about covers the basics."

Having spoken his piece, he waited for some kind of response. Chastising; condescension; indifference, maybe.

"I see..." Delwyn mused. "Do others in your family believe this as well? Or do you not remember?"

He thought about it for a moment. "My dad does, I know that much."

"And are there any names associated with this religion of yours?"

Matt looked at Delwyn quizzically. "Yeah. Jesus. Why do you ask?"

"I've never met anyone who has professed such beliefs before," he responded. "That indicates to me that relatively few hold them. If I find anyone else who knows of this Jesus, they may be able to lead you to your family."

Matt blinked. "Huh. Well, thanks, Delwyn. I don't think I'd have thought of that."  _That wasn't so bad... What was I afraid of?_

The priest smiled and nodded. "Glad to help." He stood back up and turned to go back inside. "Byron and I are getting an early start tomorrow," he said over his shoulder, "so we will also retire early tonight. If you would-"

"Oh, sure thing," Matt said quickly, rising to his feet. "I'll come say goodbye."

"... I was going to ask you to be quiet when you come upstairs," Delwyn laughed. "But you're right. Now is probably the best time."

They reentered the building and made their way to the guest rooms upstairs; they found Byron re-packing his bag on his bed.

"Everything's set," he announced when he noticed them. "Just need to get a good night's rest." He gave Matt an appraising look. "Your burn seems fully healed now."

"Yep." Matt felt his cheek reflexively. "Thank goodness for apple gels, right?"

Byron chuckled. "You did well today, all things considered."

Seeing the Velocidragon for the first time had been surprising; hearing this was shocking. "I did?!"

"Except for when you knocked me down like you were playing ninepins," said Delwyn, "I agree."

"Sorry about that, by the way-"

"You were against an enemy you'd never seen the likes of before," Byron elaborated. "That's the most dangerous place to be in battle, but you fought anyway, and you pulled through."

Matt considered this for a moment and shrugged. "I guess I did. Just barely, though."

"Better than not at all, lad," Byron countered, crossing his arms. "You'll keep training once you're back with the Chosen, though, yes? I'm afraid I didn't teach you much about fighting monsters."

"Most likely," Matt said, nodding. "And that's OK. I learned a lot in the past week, so..." He offered his hand. "Thank you, Byron."

The veteran smiled and returned the handshake. "Not at all, Matthew. Come find me in Asgard and I'll be happy to teach you all the spear tricks I can."

He would never have admitted it, but the offer made Matt feel somewhat fuzzy inside. "Really? I'll try to do that sometime, then." Breaking off the handshake, he turned his attention to Delwyn. "Thank you for coming too, man. Seeya at Hakonesia Peak!"

They shook hands. "It's been a pleasure, my friend," he answered with a nod.

* * *

Matt was still asleep when Byron and Delwyn left the following morning at sunrise. With most of the other travelers gone on their way, and a good number of the resident priests seeing to the roadside burial, the House of Salvation was quiet that day. He sat outside for most of it, watching the road for any sign of his friends. He found an interesting fantasy book to read in the House's meager collection of non-religious literature, spent some time playing with the local dog, and did a few exercises to occupy himself, but the hours still dragged on, and he found he was constantly either bored or anxious. He ended up going to bed soon after dinner, for lack of anything else to do.

It was probably because he went to sleep so early that some movement in the early morning caused him to stir. As young people sometimes do, he continued lying there, halfway between waking and sleeping, for a while longer, until he became conscious of his need to relieve himself. Reluctantly, he got himself up and clumsily made his way to the door.

Something else in his room rustled.

Matt nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around, wide awake now, imagining that Sheena must be right behind him, trying to attack him from behind.

Instead, there was Genis, sound asleep in the second of the three beds.

Relief and joy washed over Matt.  _They must have gotten here late last night!_  he realized. He looked over to the bed furthest from his; it was empty, but a bright red coat hung draped over the foot of it.

Five minutes later, Matt sneaked outside as quickly as he could, fully dressed (minus his coat) and guisarme in hand. Hearing the sound of ringing metal in the gray pre-dawn, he followed it a quarter mile away from the House.

He crested a small hill and found Kratos and Lloyd sparring on the opposite slope.

"Guardian!"

"Fierce Demon Fang!  _Agh!_ "

"You're overdoing it. Save your techs for when the enemy's guard is down."

Matt knew what he was about to get himself into, but he did not care. "Guys!" he called out, heading down the slope, grinning ear to ear.

The two swordsmen stopped what they were doing to look up at him, and Lloyd promptly forgot his frustration. "Matt! You made it!" he exclaimed, sheathing his swords and trotting up to meet him.

"Of course I made it," Matt laughed. "What do you take me for?"

They met in the middle, and Lloyd shrugged, grinning smugly. "I don't know, I just thought you'd sleep in if we let you."

"Huh?" Matt blinked in confusion. "You- oh, OH, you mean I made it to training. I thought you meant I made it here, like, to the House, but you guys already... knew that, because you were... in the same room."

"Dork," Lloyd chuckled.

Kratos, who had not moved, spoke up: "Matthew, if you will do some exercises and stretches now, I can finish with Lloyd. Then you can show me what you learned in Palmacosta."

"Good to see you too, Kratos," Matt needled, and as Lloyd drew his swords again and sprinted back down, he stuck his weapon in the ground and began a series of stretches.

He had never been more glad to be up and training so early.


	21. Back to Business

Since Matt had joined their training late that morning, Kratos did not spent much time working with him, instead having him demonstrate everything he had learned in a brief sparring match. The mercenary did not seem to particularly mind that he had not trained with the militia, as he had instructed; in fact, he agreed that the arrangement with Byron was probably better.

Kratos did not go easy on him - no more than usual, at any rate. The mercenary blocked or evaded everything he threw at him, and he brushed past or powered through his defense to give him numerous welts, and even small cuts, for his trouble. More than once, Matt found himself down on his bottom, or his back, or his face after Kratos hit him just hard enough at just the right moment to knock him down.

Frustrating as it was, Matt laughed inwardly as he remembered his first time trying to spar with Kratos back in Triet. He was no less outclassed now, but unlike then ( _Swinging it like a sword, who does that?_  he thought), he now had some idea of what he was doing, moving carefully and making full use of his guisarme's greater range.

It took ten minutes of sparring for Kratos to conclude that while Matt still had a long way to go, his improved posture and technique had greatly reduced his vulnerability, and his attacks had become far more efficient and accurate, even when accounting for his Exsphere. That would have been a good way to end that morning, but then Matt blabbed about the techs he had learned, and they had to pass the Kratos test.

"Your rendition of Sonic Thrust is slower," Kratos concluded once Matt had demonstrated it, "but it seems to have more power behind it. If you're going to use it, make sure you space it correctly. Don't risk it if you can't get past the enemy's guard."

Matt nodded. "Got it."

"Now, what about this 'Phalanx?'"

After taking a few steps backward, Matt executed the tech with a jab of his weapon. "Phalanx!"

The glowing spikes shot out in front of him, stopping three feet away from the mercenary. Impressively, he did not even flinch, whereas Lloyd was startled by their appearance as he looked on.

Kratos examined the spike wall from a few different angles, wordlessly feeling some of them with his fingertips. After a minute of this, he drew his sword and tried attacking it, first with hacks and slashes, and then with Demon Fang and Light Spear. The spikes stopped his sword cold on contact, and to Matt's surprise, they even shielded him from Kratos' techs. With every blow Phalanx stopped, Matt grew more and more pleased with his invention.

"You said this tech did nothing against a dragon's fire breath?" Kratos finally asked thoughtfully.

"Phased right through it," Matt confirmed, wincing at the memory.

Kratos nodded and held his sword in front of him with one hand on the blade: the pose he used when casting magic.

_Wait, what-_

"Stone Blast!"

A fountain of soil and rocks erupted at Kratos' feet and shot through the wall of spikes, pelting Matt in the face and knocking him down, coughing and sputtering. The Phalanx immediately faded.

"Interesting," he heard Kratos muse as he tried to shake the dirt from his eyes. "It seems Phalanx is vulnerable to elementally charged attacks."

Matt got back up and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped to spit out a clump of dirt.

"That aside," Kratos continued, "it leaves you wide open on three sides and from above. I would only recommend using it if you find yourself cornered."

"Couldn't you have used Wind Blade instead?!" Matt finally shouted, glaring at him. Somewhere off to the side, Lloyd snickered to himself.

Kratos glanced to the sun hovering over the eastern horizon, as if he had not heard. "We need to rejoin the others soon. There should be time to teach you a more all-purpose self-defense tech before then."

"Yeah?" Matt rested his bill on the ground, curiosity tempering his irritation. "What's it called?"

"Its name changes with the tool being used to execute it," said Kratos. "It's called Guardian when done with a sword, Damage Guard when with chakrams, and Force Field when cast directly from magic. To my knowledge, a spear variant does not exist yet."

Matt's eyes lit up. "Do I get to name it, then?"

"'Testudo' would be a fitting name."

"Oh." Matt's excitement deflated, and he shrugged. Testudo: a battle formation in which soldiers used their shields to build a nigh-impenetrable shell around the marching column. It  _was_  a fitting name... "Yeah, I guess that works," he admitted grudgingly.

* * *

Genis happened to be taste-testing the breakfast gravy he was making outside when Kratos and Lloyd came into view, with Matt in tow, and he noticed them before Raine and Colette did. The elf grinned and waved with his free hand.

"Hey, Matt!" he called, drawing the girls' attention. "Good to see you agai-" His voice and smile faltered when he got a better look at his companion. "Whoa."

"What happened to you?" Colette asked.

"Training," Matt grumbled, spitting out a bit of dirt as he sat down beside the fire. Kratos' condition for ending training had been for him to successfully block three of his spells in a row with Testudo. The mercenary had used Stone Blast almost exclusively.

"Here," said Raine, pouring some water into a rag and handing it to him. "At least get your hands and face clean."

"Thanks," Matt said gratefully. He finished wiping his face and hands down and looked around at the group, content. Lloyd sat between him and Colette, Genis stood next to her as he put the finishing touches on the biscuits and gravy, Raine watched as she stood over him, and Kratos - well, Kratos stood on Matt's other side, somewhat removed from their circle. "It's good to be back," he sighed with a smile.

As they ate, Matt gave the others a summary of what had happened to him between their departure from Palmacosta and their arrival at the House. Naturally, they were all surprised to hear that Sheena had paid him a visit and demanded more detail. He told them most everything, except for the bit when he had convinced the innkeeper she had been a prostitute.

Really, though, dwelling on the whole incident left him a little high-strung. Once again, Sheena could have easily killed him. Worse, he now realized that kicking her across the room might have given her incentive to target him specifically, should their paths cross again. He caught himself scanning his surroundings for her as he spoke and forced himself to stop.

"I bet that felt good after what she did to you back at Ossa Trail," Genis mused.

"It might have," Matt agreed, shrugging. "But I was a little busy trying to, oh, I dunno, NOT DIE, so I didn't really get to enjoy it."

"You handled the situation as well as could be expected," Kratos offered stoically. "Since you were not with us and had no information she wanted, however, it's unlikely you were in any real danger."

Matt gave him an exaggerated frown. "See, you could've stopped after that first part, and it would've almost been a compliment. Thanks a bunch."

Kratos' eyes narrowed, and everyone else shifted uncomfortably. Matt paid him little mind, instead going for a second biscuit.

"So," he continued, breaking the short silence, "did you guys find the statue you were looking for?"

Raine took the subject change in stride. "We did. It was at Thoda, a geyser off-shore. As it turns out, the Seal of Water was also there."

Matt stopped with the biscuit halfway to his mouth. "You guys found another Seal?!" he exclaimed.

Colette nodded cheerfully. "Yep! It was hidden inside Thoda Geyser all along. We had to open up a magical bridge to get to it, though, so that's probably why no one knew it was there."

_Magical bri- oh, get over it already, Matt,_  he thought to himself.  _You fought a living, breathing dragon the other day._  "That makes sense..."

"It really bugs me, though," Lloyd complained. "I ran out onto a frozen geyser to get the Spiritua Statue just because Koton won't let us read the Book of Regeneration without it, and then the next Seal was  _right there!_ "

"Will you let it go already?" Genis groaned. "At least they were right next to each other. Can you imagine if we'd have had to go back to Triet to get the statue?"

"If it had come to that," Kratos said disinterestedly, "we would not have left last time until Colette had read the book."

Matt took a bite of his biscuit before speaking again. "That reminds me. Are we just gonna give Koton the statue now that we have it?"

"That's the plan," Raine stated.

Matt bristled. "Ugh. We're actually giving that creep what he wants? Really?"

"I know, I don't like it, either," Lloyd pouted. "I had a great plan and everything-"

"A plan that would have put valuable historical artifacts at risk!" Raine snapped. "We have the statue. We're not going to cause a scene. End of discussion."

Both Lloyd and Matt gave her a "hmph" in response.

"It kinda makes me mad, too, guys," Colette reassured them in the least angry-sounding voice imaginable. "But I'd rather just let him have the statue than cause any trouble."

"Fine," Matt grunted with his mouth full. "But I don't think I can stomach facing him again in that case."

* * *

As soon as they were finished eating, they set out again. To Matt's surprise, it took them about three days to reach the pass, as it had the last time they had come this way.

"It doesn't make any sense!" he told Raine as they walked up the trail. "I didn't have an Exsphere then - we should be able to go faster now, shouldn't we?"

Raine gave him a funny look in response - her "thinking face." "From my own experience," she said, as if recalling, "Exspheres only actively augment our abilities when we exert ourselves. At a walking pace, that would allow us to go further before tiring, but our speed would remain about the same, and we can only cover so much distance before the day ends."

Comprehension dawned on Matt. "Really? Then..." His mood soured. "The real reason I was always lagging behind before was just because I was that much out of shape."

"That seems to be the case," Raine affirmed. "It also means you had improved considerably by the time we arrived here last time."

"That..." Matt paused and scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess that's true. Thanks." He smirked. "I guess it's all  _uphill_  from here, huh?"

Raine gave him a flat look and walked on ahead, shaking her head.

He was finding that she was far more agreeable now that her suspicions about him had been somewhat alleviated. She was still blunt and analytical, but now that he was more or less on her good side, she was helpful and encouraging at least as often as she was critical of him. After being under her scrutiny nonstop for a month, it was a welcome change.

Hence, he was now comfortable enough around her to exercise his go-to brand of humor.

"Oh, come on," he called after her. "You're making a molehill into a  _mountain!_ "

"Aqua Edge!"

Matt was promptly doused with enough water to fill a bathtub.

" _Genis!_ " he coughed.

"Enough with the puns already," his attacker groused. "Wind Blade!"

The weak spell swirled erratically around him, blowing away the excess water but leaving his hair and clothes damp.

"Don't worry about him, man," Lloyd said with a grin, punching Matt lightly on the shoulder. "He's just being a wet blanket."

"I hate you guys," Genis grumbled as they bumped fists. Colette just watched the proceedings, giggling with one hand over her mouth.

"Give us a break, Genis," Matt said in a pleading tone, smoothing out his hair. "I mean, it  _is_ for our training."

"It is?" Genis and Lloyd asked in unison.

"Yeah, after all..." Matt's poker face broke, and he smiled playfully. "You can't have swordplay without a little wordplay."

Genis' eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to say something. No words came for several seconds, however, and he eventually closed it. "Fine," he finally said. "You can have that one."

Matt's grin widened. "Heh. Thanks."

"... I don't get it," said Lloyd, puzzled.

"We're here," Kratos announced from the front of the group.

His disbelief at Lloyd forgotten, Matt glanced up to see the gateway to the mountain pass and Koton's house. "Great. I'll be out here," he declared.

"Huh?" Colette, along with a few of the others, gave him a confused look. "You don't want to come in?"

"I wasn't kidding the other day," Matt answered. "If I go in there when this goes down, I might not be able to resist punching him in his stupid nose." Just the thought of seeing Koton get his way made his blood boil. "Besides," he continued, making an effort to calm himself down, "I'm supposed to meet a friend from Palmacosta while we're here."

"This won't take long," Kratos warned him. "Make sure you're here when we're ready to leave."

Matt gave him a thumbs up and leaned back against the fence beside the road. "Will do."

As Lloyd, the last one inside the house, shut the door, it occurred to Matt that he had no idea where on Hakonesia Peak Delwyn might be. There were no other buildings in sight, and the only people he could see were travelers passing by and the guards standing beside the pass.

_So, do I just... wait and see if he shows?_

Resigned, Matt set down his bill, took off his bag, sat down in the dirt, and took out his journal; Noishe sat down on his haunches beside him. He had little to write about at that moment, so he decided to just record the group's most recent activities and see if anything came to him from there. He had only finished this first bit when Koton's front door opened and his friends filed out again.

"What'd you guys find out?" Matt asked them, closing his journal and gathering his things as they approached.

Raine held up a notebook for him to see. "I copied down the information about the Seals that Colette was able to read. You can read it as we go, if you want."

Matt took the booklet appreciatively. "Sounds good. Thanks!"

"Did your friend show up?" Colette asked him.

"I didn't see him." Matt scratched his head, and his forehead wrinkled as he thought. "I don't get it. He said he was going to Hakonesia Peak."

"When someone says they're coming _to_  this mountain instead of  _through_ or  _past_  it, it is safe to assume their destination is not the pass itself," Kratos pointed out. "There are various farms and homesteads around here that can't be reached via the main road."

Something about Kratos mentioning farms resonated in Matt's mind.

"In any case," he continued, "we don't have time to waste looking for him. Lloyd, do you still have the road pass?"

Matt's eyes widened. "We have a road pass?!"

Lloyd's face fell. "Yeah, it's right here," he said, pulling the slip of paper from his pocket.

"Then we'd better get going," Raine urged, already moving toward the gate at the front of the pass. "Asgard is still a few days away."

Genis threw up his hands, but started following after her nonetheless. "You just want to get there so you can see the ruins."

Again, Matt's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Asgard?" He started skimming through Raine's notes. "Hold up. Are we going to a city or a ruin?"

* * *

It took them the rest of that day and all of the next to reach Hakonesia Peak's northern foothills. It was not a rough road, by any means; it was wider and more level than Ossa Trail had been, clearly built with wagons and carriages in mind. The issue was the sheer length of it. The mountain was tall, and even though the path took them between the two tallest peaks, there were steep places on the northern side where whoever had built it had resorted to long, winding switchbacks. More than once, Matt opted to cut across from one stretch of road to the next, just to get a brief rest before the others caught up. It was not long before Lloyd got in on the act with him, but Raine quietly (and scarily) asked them to stop when Genis started doing it. Even with his Exsphere supplying him with greater stamina, Matt's legs were excruciatingly sore by the end of it.

Naturally, this was not enough to convince Kratos to let his two pupils have the following morning off.

He looked them over from his place, a little higher up the hill they were on. "Whenever you're ready," he told them.

"Might be a while, then," Matt said with a smirk, giving his quarterstaff a twirl. He knew perfectly well by now that Kratos had  _really_  meant "Hurry up," but the self-deprecation helped hide his nervousness. He hoped.

The mercenary was not amused. Or irritated. Or saddened, or any other discernible emotion. "This is an important aspect of fighting with an ally. Learning each other's strengths and weaknesses will allow you to make more strategic decisions in battle."

Lloyd swung his wooden swords experimentally, standing on level ground with Matt several paces away. "I thought strategy was more  _your_  deal, Kratos."

"And do you want me to tell you how to fight in every battle we face?" Kratos asked him.

The teen froze. "... Well, no."

"Both of you may have times when you need to help coordinate others in battle," said Kratos. "In any fight, however, you will need to make decisions for yourself. What you know about your allies will be a key factor in those decisions."

"How so?" Matt wondered, hesitantly lowering his staff.

Apparently, that irked Kratos. "If you put any thought into that question, you could find several answers for yourself. In fact..." He became thoughtful. "I want the two of you to compile a list of all the different factors of battle that will affect the way you approach it."

Matt set the end of his staff on the ground, puzzled. "You mean now?"

"No. In two days."

The simple statement floored Matt. " _What?_ "

Lloyd was positively scandalized. "You're giving us homework?! Professor Sage already has work for us to do!"

"In addition," Kratos continued, as if he had not heard Lloyd, "I want you to list specific ways knowledge of each factor can change your approach."

Lloyd groaned loudly, and Matt cringed as if he had been struck.  _Ouch. I guess this is my own fault... I'll need to apologize to Lloyd later, I guess._

"For now, I still want you to spar," the mercenary said firmly. "Get ready."

_CRUD._  Matt gingerly took on his ready stance, staff pointed at Lloyd's face to throw off his depth perception.

Lloyd, in turn, straightened up, spread his feet, and raised his swords. He held one out in front of him for guarding, and the other he drew back, pointed at Matt's eyes.

_He's trying that new starting stance,_  Matt realized. This was both good news and bad news. Good, because Lloyd was still getting used to fighting this way; bad, because his front and sides were much better guarded than before, when the teen had held his blades angled downward and to the side.

_OK, so I can see if I can get behind him somehow... Either that or see if he lets his guard slip._

Matt was so buried in his thoughts that he missed Kratos' signal for the match to start, and for a split second he did not know why Lloyd was suddenly rushing him.

His eyes widened, and his gut reaction was that he should use Phalanx before Lloyd reached him; Kratos, however, had instructed them not to use techs.

Lloyd opened with a downward slashing attack; Matt jumped backward to dodge it and retaliated with a thrust at Lloyd's torso. Lloyd swatted the blow aside with one sword and quickly followed up with a stabbing attack with the other. Switching his stance so his staff was angled in front of him, Matt parried with one end of his staff and swung the other at Lloyd's shoulder. Lloyd caught the blow on his other sword easily; their weapons were locked together.

In the struggle that followed, Matt quickly realized Lloyd had the upper hand in sheer strength, and he could not use his staff's leverage to his advantage. With a grunt, he twisted his staff around to throw Lloyd's swords away from himself and retreated a few steps, once again leveling his weapon at his opponent.

After that, Lloyd's assault came so quickly that Matt lost track of exactly what was happening, unable to think, plan, or do anything else except react. He dodged, he parried, he jabbed, and he retreated as his heart pounded and sweat accumulated on his skin. He managed to hit Lloyd a few times, but Lloyd got him far more often, and ultimately swept one of his legs out from under him mid-step.

_Aw, no._

Matt toppled over backward, and the back of his head hit the dirt, hard; he felt the impact through his whole body, and his vision flashed white.

_...That's weird,_  he thought, wincing.  _The sky's too bright for that many stars to be out. And they're moving too fast._

"Hey, are you all right?"

Lloyd's face appeared in his field of vision just as the stars scattered and winked out of existence. Matt did not answer him, instead just sitting up; the motion made the back of his head throb more intensely.

"Ow." He absently felt the spot with one hand.

More movement in front of him. "Matthew, how many stones are in my hand?" he heard Kratos' voice ask.

Matt focused his eyes just enough to look down at Kratos' hand. Three pebbles seemed to merge into one on his open palm. "Um. Just one."

Kratos nodded and lightly tossed the pebble away. "Now, Lloyd, did you learn anything about Matthew's fighting style just now?"

The teen gawked at the sudden change in topic. "Uh... Well, he has fast reflexes..." His face scrunched up as he thought more about it. "He doesn't do well up close. He dodges most attacks, makes you chase him, and then attacks from mid-range."

Matt shrugged. "Sounds about right, I guess."

Kratos nodded once. "It's a start." He returned his attention to Matt. "And what did you learn about Lloyd?"

"... He's a lot better at fighting than I am."

"Be more specific."

"Hm. Well, unlike me, he pretty much needs to be up close and personal to fight effectively-"

"Hey!"

Matt gave Lloyd a flat look. "Am I wrong?" When the teen did not answer, he continued. "He's... quick, and strong, and - what's the word... relentless."

Kratos considered this answer. "Good enough for now."

_Always so condescending... Jeesh._

"This is an important skill," Kratos emphasized. "Knowing the participants on a battlefield can help you support your allies, defeat your opponents, and compensate for your own weaknesses. I expect you two to work on adopting this mindset."

Both students mumbled their acceptance. Kratos gave an audible sigh and checked the rising sun's progress.

"It's time to go back. At the rate we've been traveling, we should reach Asgard by midmorning tomorrow."

* * *

_So long self_

_Well it's been fun, but I have found somebody else_

_So long self, there's just no room for two, so you are gonna have to move_

_So long self_

_Don't take this wrong, but you are wrong for me, farewell, oh well, good-bye, don't cryyyyyy_

_Oh, so long-_

Someone tapped Matt's shoulder, distracting him from his music. He turned to see Colette walking nearby, looking somewhat embarrassed.

He paused the music and pulled out his earbuds with a tug on the cord. "What's up?" he asked.

"I didn't want to bother you," she said apologetically, "but we're almost to Asgard."

Matt looked ahead, past the rest of the group. Hakonesia loomed up in steep cliffs on their left, and a deep ravine yawned open on the right. In the distance, where the two seemed to draw closer together, he could see a large gated archway marking the entrance to the city.

"No bother, Colette," he told her, somewhat distracted as he stared out at their destination, squinting slightly. "Thanks for telling me."

A brief silence followed. "Does it... look familiar?"

Matt frowned and shook his head, his heart sinking a little. "No. I don't recognize this place."

Colette hanged her head. "That's too bad. I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "No worries. If they're not here, they've gotta be somewhere else-"

The Chosen suddenly perked up, her eyes widening. "Oh! You never said anything about your dad!"

"I didn't?" Matt tilted his head, remembering.  _I told them I remembered him... Ah. That was the same day they rescued me._ "Huh. I guess I didn't."

"What's he like?" Lloyd asked, slowing down to join them with Genis in tow. Apparently, they had overheard Colette.

In hindsight, Matt really should have seen that coming and started putting together an answer; instead, he floundered briefly. "Uh... Well..."  _Oi, how do you even begin to answer that?_  "... I take after him a lot, I guess."

"How's that?" Genis pressed.

"He's... kind of an introvert when it comes down to it," Matt said slowly. "Not like a recluse, but he doesn't have much use for big crowds."

"Is he on the quiet side, then?" Lloyd asked.

Matt shrugged. "Kind of. He's more talkative in smaller groups, and more friendly with people he knows."

"Yep, that sounds familiar," Lloyd chuckled.

Matt's thoughts flowed more freely into words now. "He doesn't take crap from anyone." His mouth curled into a smirk. "But I also got most of my sense of humor from him."

Genis sighed and slapped his forehead. "So that explains it."

"But he's also smart," Matt continued, ignoring the elf. "And wise, I guess." His forehead wrinkled as he concentrated. "I... wanna say he made a lot of the same mistakes I did growing up, but I don't remember what they would be." He shook his head and relaxed. "Anyway."

At some point, Raine had also slowed down to join them. "Do you remember his name? It would make your search simpler."

Up ahead, someone yelled.

Matt froze, Raine's question immediately driven from his mind, and peered around Kratos to see what was happening.

They were within sprinting distance of the entrance to the city, and a small group of people was making their way out of it. Three adult-sized figures took the lead, while a gaggle of smaller ones followed.

Another shout reached Matt's ears, and his imagination took over.  _Kidnappers? Smugglers? Worse?_

"They're having some kind of argument," he heard Colette say quietly.

"No one appears to be distressed," Kratos observed, "but the one in front seems agitated."

At that moment, they were close enough to Asgard for Matt to make out the features of some of the people - namely, the fit, gray-haired, spear-wielding man at the lead.

" _Byron?_ " he wondered loudly.

"Byron?" Lloyd echoed. "The guy who trained you?"

"Yeah. What the heck is he doing?" Matt paused, and then jogged past Kratos toward the archway.  _Might as well just ask him._

He was able to get a better look at the others with his mentor as he approached. Byron had turned his back to argue with the two other adults with him: a thin, middle-aged woman with jet black hair, and a more well-built brunette man with a few gray streaks. Four children were gathered around this couple, two boys and two girls; the oldest girl looked about sixteen, the boys around ten (they were near identical, Matt noted), and the youngest girl could not have been older than ten.

"Where else in the world would we go?" the man demanded.

Byron spread his arms wide. "Anywhere!" he exclaimed. "Palmacosta! Luin! Even Hima! If you stay here-"

"Byron, stop!" the woman yelled, hands on the youngest girl's shoulders. "We can't just leave!"

The old man thumped the butt of his spear against the ground. "What else can you do?! Would you sit and wait around here until-"

As Byron spoke, the other man noticed Matt coming. He put a heavy hand on Byron's shoulder and said something in a quieter yet firm-sounding tone. Matt could not hear what was said, but Byron immediately turned around and recognized him.

"Matthew!" He strode away from the archway to meet him, his expression one of near panic.

Matt slowed to a stop when they were a few feet apart. "Byron, what's-"

The old man gripped his arm and glanced past him. "You've got to keep the Chosen away from here, lad," he said, quickly and quietly. "If you don't, they might-"

Matt pushed his hand away impatiently, perplexed by his mentor's actions. "Byron, what's going on here?" He looked past him to the family still standing and watching by the gate; he could hear his own companions coming up behind him. "Is that your niece?"

Raine drew up alongside and slightly in front of Matt. "You must be Byron," she asserted before the old man could answer Matt's question. "I'm Professor Raine Sage."

"Pleased to meet you," Byron acknowledged hastily. "Listen to me! You can't-"

"This is Kratos, my brother Genis, Lloyd, and Colette." She gestured to the other members of the group in turn.

"I remember you!" Genis realized. "We helped you escape from the Palmacosta Ranch!"

Byron was miffed at the interruption, but it seemed to calm him down somewhat, at least. "How do you do." He gestured to the family behind him. "This is my niece Loraine, her husband Rayford, and their children." Loraine gave a small curtsy as Byron kept talking. "Listen to me. Stay away from Asgard."

"Is something the matter with the city?" Kratos asked nonchalantly.

" _They're sacrificing their women to the Summon Spirit of Wind._ "

It took Matt a full second to process this, and two more to realize Byron was serious, and he recoiled.

"Human sacrifice?!" he and Lloyd exclaimed in unison.

"That can't be right!" cried Colette.

"If we refused the will of the Summon Spirit," Rayford asserted, "it would destroy us all!"

Byron rounded on the man, fuming. "And what happens when Lori is chosen to appease it? Or Celeste, or Jocelyn? What will you do then, Rayford?!" His challenge went unanswered, but Rayford held his gaze, indignant, while the young girl moved closer to her mother.

Now, given the circumstances, Matt had been adapting fairly well to all the strange, fantastical things he had been seeing and hearing in the past two months. Magic, dragons, elves and half-elves, monsters, Chosen Ones. If it had not been for the revulsion his friends shared at this revelation, though, he would have very quickly lost his patience with the world he found himself in.

_Why NOT just leave?! As if the town itself is more important than its people!_

"I assume this Summon Spirit can be found at the Asgard Ruin, then?" Raine queried, having composed herself; her calm tone cut like a knife through the tension and startled Byron and Rayford out of their staring contest.

"... That's where it appears, yes," Loraine answered, uncertain.

The professor exchanged a glance with Kratos. "We're here on other business," she told the locals, "but I would like to study the ruin while we're here."

Rayford shifted uncomfortably. "Well... go up there at your own risk, I guess. Just know that you'll probably get in trouble if someone sees you."

Lloyd shrugged. "Ah, well. Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission."

Genis slapped his forehead as the party continued on into the city. "That's a terrible philosophy, Lloyd."

As Matt moved to follow the party, Byron caught his shoulder. "I've asked around town," he said quietly. "No one here seems to know of you."

Matt nodded, the familiar disappointment weighing on him. "All right. Thanks anyway." He hurried on his way, not wanting to be caught in the middle of a family argument or be left behind by his friends.

Just as the view outside of town had been, Asgard's interior was entirely unfamiliar to him. Unlike Palmacosta, it appeared rustic, though not quite as rugged as Triet had been. The residents had made the most of this narrow canyon. Portions of the rocky wall on the left had been seemingly burrowed into, and Matt guessed that there must have been houses or businesses inside these caves. Peering into one as they passed by, however, he saw that they were really more like galleries, the walls covered in fresco paintings. Instead, the residential and commercial buildings were more traditional structures built on just about every available plot of level ground - sometimes even on top of each other. On every building he saw, a windmill was harnessing the powerful gusts whistling through town, whether serving some function or purely for decoration.

Overall, Asgard was large, but quaint, and might have been more cheerful if not for the grim expressions most of the adults wore.

Finally, as the group made their way through Asgard toward a prominent gateway guarding the ruin, Matt paused beside a food vendor's stand to peek over the edge of the cliff down into the ravine that bordered much of the city. The depth of it was dizzying, and he immediately retreated a few steps.

_Hold up. What was that?_  Carefully, he leaned over the edge to look again, grasping the vendor's table to keep himself steady.

"Not much to see down there, I'm afraid," the merchant in front of the table said gruffly. "Can I interest you in some fresh peppers?"

At the bottom of the ravine's opposite cliff, however, Matt spotted a few ramshackle buildings beside a trickle of a river. A few people milled slowly about, flashes of bright color on their heads visible even from this distance.

"Is that part of Asgard?" Matt asked, frowning.  _Déjà vu..._

The merchant followed his gaze and scowled. "Those are half-elves."

Matt tilted his head quizzically. "Half-elves?"

"They're not allowed to have homes of their own in the city," the vendor grunted, "so they live down there. Scavenge whatever falls in, like wild dogs..."

Although he was vaguely disturbed to hear this, Matt completely stopped hearing what the merchant was telling him. This was not the first time he had seen a building from so high above like this.

* * *

_He was falling._

_He was not supposed to be falling. He had not climbed anything. He had not been carried into the air. He had been on the ground. The ground was not there anymore... No,_ there _it was, below him. A vast, brown expanse of sand._

_It was a desert. But it was not his desert. Why was he so high above it?_

_He barely noticed it amid his sudden panic and dread: a large, blue structure, firm among the shifting sand surrounding it, surrounded by the cliffs of a plateau._

_And... something roaring nearby... quickly fading to a shrill whistle._

_The world started spinning around him as he started to tumble; up and down were soon lost on him_ _._

_And then..._

_Nothing._

* * *

Matt gasped, reeling, and very nearly tumbled forward into the abyss, but some instinct or reflex pitched his weight backward, and he stumbled away from the ledge and fell down safely. He whipped his head around, confirming that he was still in Asgard. The vendor was swearing at him, telling him to be more careful, but his words went ignored. Somehow, his friends had not seen his near blunder and were still heading for the ruin; he hurried to catch up to them, trying to place this memory as he went.

_Was that... Was that how I hit my head?_


	22. A Mind-Blowing Battle

_Chapter 22: A Mind-Blowing Battle_

_I fell into the Triet Desert. That's when I hit my head and lost my memory. How in the world did I get that high up, though...?_

"Matthew, are you paying attention?!"

"Curve in the dais, rock infused with mana, something about what happens at night."

Raine's irritation relented and she resumed her lecture.

The group had gathered at the foot of the massive stone dais that was the Asgard Ruin, situated at the top of a hill at the far end of town, with Raine standing on the upper steps and telling them all about the ruin's origins. Kratos, Genis, and Colette all listened politely to her, while Lloyd wandered off at the earliest opportunity, to no one's surprise. To the professor's credit, the history lesson might have been mildly interesting if Matt had actually paid more attention to it. His focus, however, was elsewhere.

_The plateau and that building were the tallest things there, and I was even higher up than them... Then... DID something carry me up there, or launch me up from the ground?_

"...What did you just say?!" Raine suddenly demanded.

Matt snapped out of his reverie. "I didn't say anything!" he protested. "I was just-"

Raine had not been addressing him, he realized. She was not even near him anymore; she had walked across the dais and was speaking to someone standing behind it.

"... thinking." He silently resolved to sort out his thoughts on paper later.

"I don't think she was talking to you," Colette remarked thoughtfully, earning a perplexed glance from Matt and an exasperated sigh from Genis.

"Lloyd must have said something stupid again," Genis decided. As they watched, his sister jumped down from the dais and out of sight, and his eyes lit up. "I wanna go see what Raine does to him!" He dashed to the side of the ruin and disappeared around the corner. Colette gave a small gasp and ran after him.

"You've got a morbid sense of humor," Matt muttered at Genis' back. With nobody else left, he glanced over at Kratos; maybe he would have something interesting to say.

The mercenary met his gaze and raised one eyebrow at him.

_Eh, maybe not._ Matt shrugged at him and climbed the stairs of the dais to see what was happening, the butt of his weapon tapping against the stone as he went.

"What?" he could hear Raine asking. "If you have any questions, I'll take them after the lecture."

Matt reached the far end of the dais while she was still speaking. Raine was standing beside a large metallic box sitting at the base of the dais, Ruin Mode still fully engaged; Lloyd and two unfamiliar men were staring at her in abject horror. For an instant, the red hair and purple vest one of them wore made him recoil, thinking Magnius must have returned from the grave.

He shook his head, grunting. Magnius was dead, and this man was far scrawnier and lacked the deceased Cardinal's scars.

Lloyd spoke up, his calm tone dissonant with his dismay. "The bomb turned on."

" _Bomb?!_ " Matt's eyes snapped back to the metal box beside Raine; he now noticed the rapid ticking noise coming from it.

"Woman! You flipped the switch!" the red-haired man shouted at Raine. He quickly became acquainted with the professor's boot.

"Don't try to put the blame on someone else!" Raine yelled back at him.

"Can't we turn this thing off?!" Matt asked frantically, jumping down and flipping the switch to its upright position. The box, however, kept ticking.

"Of course not!" the man answered indignantly, earning himself another kick from Raine.

Lloyd lost no time; he quickly looked over the bomb and knelt in front of it, retrieving some tools from his pockets. "I should be able to disarm it," he said quickly, prying a panel off with the point of a knife.

_You SHOULD be able to?!_  Matt turned to Raine. "Shouldn't we all get out of here?!"

The elf did not budge. "If anyone can stop this device, it's Lloyd."

"I'm really not liking all these 'if's' and 'should-be's!'" Matt exclaimed, glancing down at the teen again.

His growing nervousness ground to a halt as he watched Lloyd work.

Knives, picks, and files blurred together as Lloyd probed, cut, and ground his way through the bomb.

It was almost like...

Matt grimaced and put a hand on his head.  _Déjà vu._

The ticking noise stopped at about the same time he brushed the feeling aside, and Lloyd visibly relaxed. "Okay, it's done."

Matt, Raine, and the dark-haired man each breathed a sigh of relief. The redhead just crossed his arms, watching contemplatively. "Wow. The Breaker was supposed to be unstoppable..."

Lloyd pocketed his tools and stood up, glaring at him. "Don't build things you can't control!"

_...If he thought it was unstoppable,_  Matt wondered incredulously,  _then why'd he stick around?_  He would have asked this question aloud, but he froze when he noticed the man's pointed ears.

A loud voice coming from the front of the dais cut through his thoughts.

The dark-haired man's face paled at the sound. "It's the mayor!" He and the redhead quickly made a run for it.

Lloyd picked up on their urgency. "This looks like trouble!" he exclaimed. "Let's just get out of here!"

The three of them bolted, joining back up with Genis, Colette, and Kratos and dodging past the elderly mayor and his attendants, with Raine muttering to herself about wanting to study the dais all the while.

"...Why are  _we_  running?" Matt asked anyone who would listen. "Lloyd just saved their ruin!"

* * *

Once they were away from the ruin, Raine was adamant about tracking down the two troublemakers, who Lloyd identified as Linar and Harley. Kratos initially suggested that Matt use the opportunity to look for his family as well, until Matt told them Byron had already done so, unsuccessfully.

"Harley shouldn't be too hard to find," Raine speculated. "He seems to be the only half-elf living here."

Matt became pensive. "Half-elf? That pointy-eared guy is a half-elf?"

Genis looked at him with laser focus. "Is something wrong?"

"Maybe." Matt scratched his head; he had almost forgotten his conversation with the fruit vendor after his flashback. "I heard half-elves aren't allowed to own houses here."

"They aren't?" Colette asked, surprised.

Matt shrugged. "That's what I heard." He gestured toward the ravine. "They have a neighborhood down there, outside of town."

Lloyd stepped carefully toward the edge and looked down for himself. "Hey, he's right! Man, I don't wanna go all the way down there..."

"The rule," Kratos pointed out, "is that half-elves cannot have houses of their own inside Asgard." Kratos glanced at Matt. "Is that correct?"

"Yeah, that's what one of the vendors told me," Matt answered with a nod.

"If half-elves were not allowed to enter town at all," Kratos reasoned, "such a law would be redundant."

"Perhaps this Linar person is harboring Harley," Raine suggested, catching on.

"Even if he is not," Kratos continued, "he may know best how to find him."

Lloyd nodded, connecting the dots in his mind. "So, if we find Linar, we find Harley."

"Great! Where should we start?" Colette asked.

"The market, most likely," said Raine. "We can get this done more quickly if we split up."

"I have no objections," Kratos said.

"Ah..." Genis mumbled and shifted in place slightly, drawing the others' attention. "Maybe we should go in groups?"

"The city is safe enough," said Kratos, not missing a beat, "but I suppose we can't be too careful. I will accompany the Chosen."

"Lloyd, why don't you come with me?" Raine asked in that adult way that was more of an order than a question. "We'll have an adult in each group this way."

Lloyd went ramrod straight. "Ahh! This isn't gonna turn into another history lecture, is it?!" Raine answered him with a slap to the back of the head.

Chuckling at Lloyd's misfortune, Matt looked down at Genis. "Guess that leaves us, then." He only got a nonchalant shrug in response, and he addressed the whole group once more. "What do we do when someone finds out where Linar is?"

"Wait at the entrance to the residential area, over there," Kratos answered, pointing to the road at a bend in the ravine. "That will be the signal for everyone still searching."

* * *

"Next time," Genis grumbled several minutes later, " _I_  decide who we talk to first."

Matt flicked a bit of old tomato out of his hair and gave the elf an irritated glare. "He knew off-hand about the half-elves' neighborhood," he said defensively. "I figured if Harley lives with Linar, or even visits him much, that guy would know where to find them. Besides,  _you're_  the one who made him mad."

"Am not!" Genis retorted. "He got mad as soon as you mentioned Harley!"

"No, no, no. That just  _annoyed_  him. He got  _mad_  when you called him an arrogant imbecile! You know we'll probably have to buy food from him, right?"

Genis threw up his hands. "Whatever! He's not gonna talk to us anymore, so it doesn't matter now. Let's just ask someone else."

"Fine," Matt grunted, looking around the sparsely crowded main street. "How about... that guy?" He pointed at a man leaving a nearby shop empty-handed.

"I said I was deciding this time," Genis said curtly. He gave the area a cursory glance and nodded. "Okay, let's go ask that guy." He headed straight for the same man Matt had pointed out; incidentally, he was walking in their general direction anyway.

Matt groaned to himself and started after him.  _Really showing your age there, kid,_  he thought.

"Excuse me," Genis asked the man, catching his attention, "do you know where we can find Linar?"

"Linar?" the man echoed, his forehead wrinkling.

"Glasses, black hair, pale skin," Matt clarified. "We ran into him up at the Asgard Ruin, and we need to find him."

The man's face relaxed and he shook his head. "I'm just here on business," he said apologetically. "I don't know many people here."

Genis gave an irritated grunt; Matt just nodded. "Same here, actually. Thanks anyway."

"Good luck to you, boys," the man told them as they continued on.

"Diego!" someone shouted. "What brings you down here?"

Matt looked over his shoulder to see the man approaching the food vendor. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Lloyd sprinting down a set of stairs toward the residential area, with Raine following after him.

"Looks like Lloyd beat us to the punch," he said, tapping Genis on the shoulder.

"Wow," the elf murmured, "that was quick. Let's go, then!"

"I  _really_  hope Harley is actually with Linar," Matt mused. "I don't wanna have to go down to that village."

"Why not?" Genis asked him. Something about the way he said it - a little too fast, a little too loud - seemed off.

Matt spared him a glance as they walked. Again, Genis was watching him closely, almost accusingly.

Lowered voices coming from Diego and the food vendor distracted him for a moment: "Maybe he finally found himself a girl and settled down," the vendor suggested. "Wouldn't that be something?"

"Even if he did," Diego countered, "he would've told us! He would've come back if he could, and sent a letter if he couldn't!  _Something_ must've happened..."

Matt shook his head and returned his focus to Genis. "I mean, did you see how far down it is? It'd take us all day to get there, assuming there's even a trail."

Genis' gaze relaxed and returned to the road in front of them. "Ah, right. It's a long way down... And half-elves live down there."

Matt paused, brow furrowed. "...That's true. But if they live so close to town, and so far away from any human ranches... Half-elves must not all be Desians," he concluded, thinking aloud. It had not ever occurred to him before - until that day, the only half-elves he had met (to his knowledge) had been Desians.  _And now I know one who tried to blow something up..._

"Well... no," Genis answered. "Not all Desians are half-elves, either. A few of them are human."

" _What?_ "  _I must have heard that wrong..._  "You're telling me there are humans who join the Desians? As in, the Desians who  _murder and abuse humans?_ "

Genis shrugged helplessly. "I don't know why they do it. I just know it happens sometimes."

The masked faces of the Desians who had tormented Matt back at the Palmacosta Ranch flashed through his mind, and he scowled. "That's just...  _Ugh!_ " He thumped his weapon against the ground in frustration and disgust.

"...Racial hatred is at least familiar," Genis said quietly after a brief silence, "but why would humans treat other humans like that? Is that what you're thinking?"

"It shouldn't matter who's doing it," Matt growled, "but somehow... it feels even more wrong."

He continued turning these thoughts over in his mind, even as they re-grouped with the others and made their way through Asgard's worn-looking residential area. Lloyd led them up the hill to a house close to the edge of town.

Soon after Raine knocked on the door, it swung open to reveal Linar. He recognized them immediately, and stared at them in flustered silence for a moment before simply letting them inside.

It was an impressively cluttered house for its size, with every flat surface but the floor and a few chairs covered in books, loose paper, and scrolls. Matt immediately noticed the place had a musty scent that made his nostrils itch. One of the chairs at the table was occupied by a young, dark-haired woman with her head in her hands. She looked up at the group with tired eyes as they entered. Across from her, pacing back and forth through the living room, was Harley.

"You again!" the half-elf spat, stopping in his tracks once he saw them.

"Harley? Linar? Do you know these people?" the woman asked softly.

"These are the people from the ruin," Linar answered. "The tourists."

_Tourists? Is that what we are?_  Matt wondered.

"I'm a scholar," Raine asserted.

"Whatever! Get out!" Harley demanded, pointing at them.

"Stop it, Harley. This is my house." the woman said, standing up from her chair. Turning to face the group, she gave them a nod. "I'm Aisha. I understand that you were the ones who stopped Harley and my brother. Thank you."

Hearing this, Matt punched Lloyd lightly on the shoulder. "This guy here - he's the one who did it. It was actually pretty impressive." Lloyd grinned and scratched the back of his head, and Matt could have sworn his face gained a shade of red.

"The rest of us were just there to see it," Colette affirmed.

"You  _all_  got in our way," Harley fumed.

Aisha frowned sternly at him. "If they hadn't, and you destroyed the ruin, the people of this city would be the ones to suffer."

"But as things stand now, you're going to be sacrificed!" Harley argued, his anger curiously gone and replaced with a pleading tone.

"Waitwaitwait,  _wait_ ," Matt interrupted, disbelieving. "Harley. You're telling me that to save your friend here... you would have risked a town full of innocent people getting obliterated by an angry Summon Spirit  _and_  tons of falling rock from the explosion?"

Harley opened his mouth to retort, but Kratos interrupted him: "She could easily have been killed with the rest of the townspeople."

There was a beat of silence.

"Man, you really didn't think that one through," Genis mused.

Harley looked ready to explode. "Oh, yeah? What was I supposed to-"

"So Aisha is the one they're offering to the Summon Spirit?" Raine asked. "Why would they do such a thing?"

Linar and Harley both explained that until recently, the sacrificing ritual had just been a dance performed atop the ruin; however, Linar, an archaeologist, had tampered with the dais and opened a seal. Since then, the Summon Spirit had been appearing and demanding sacrifices to appease it. This mention of a seal somehow brought up an exciting-sounding conversation between Raine and Linar about the "Balacruf Ruins" that left Matt utterly lost.

Finally, Harley lost his patience and slapped the table, startling everyone else in the room. "That's enough!" he yelled. "Aisha's going to be sacrificed tonight, and we need to think of something! Now get out!"

Linar hurriedly and apologetically hurried the group back out through the door and closed it behind them, leaving them to their own devices on the doorstep.

Lloyd crossed his arms, annoyed. "That was a bust."

"Not completely," Raine said. "We found a promising lead for the next seal. If it's not the Asgard Ruin, it is likely to be at a different location tied to the Balacruf Dynasty."

"I wonder..."

"What is it, Colette?" Genis probed.

The Chosen folded her hands together, her expression troubled. "If it turns out that the seal  _is_  somewhere else, then... who or what is demanding sacrifices at the dais?"

Matt shuddered at this thought.  _I don't think I want to know..._

"Then whether it's the seal or not," Lloyd stated firmly, "we can't leave without getting another look at that ruin!"

"One problem with that," Matt suddenly realized. "Last time we went up there, we got chased away."

"We should ask the mayor for permission," Kratos suggested. "Perhaps for forgiveness, as well," he added. Matt caught him casting an aside glance at Lloyd and nearly laughed aloud.

"I think I know a way we can get to the ruin," Raine said, as if half to herself, and she put a hand to her chin. "It would let us examine this 'Summon Spirit' at the same time."

* * *

"This is a crazy idea," Matt griped under his breath.

"You're telling me!" Genis hissed.

"She didn't want to risk breaking any artifacts to get the Book of Regeneration," Lloyd complained quietly, "but she'll risk dying to get close to that dais?!"

"Quiet," Kratos growled.

The three boys grudgingly complied, stewing in their respective thoughts on the matter.

"The Professor knows what she's doing," Colette whispered. "Whether this is the seal or not, we can put a stop to the sacrifices."

Matt tilted his head at her. "How do you figure tha-!" He was cut short by an open-palmed thump on the back of his head from Kratos. He whirled around, glaring at the mercenary, and gestured emphatically at Colette with his free hand.  _She can talk, but we can't?!_

Kratos met his gaze unflinchingly for a moment before returning his attention to the dais; Matt followed suit, practically steaming.

It was not that this sternness was undue; they were, after all, at the front of a large crowd watching Raine perform the ritual dance. It was a somber occasion, with most of the onlookers watching with grave expressions, probably anticipating some terrible fate to befall Raine. Matt and his companions, however, observed the scene intently, ready to move at the first sign of trouble. At least, they were supposed to be. In fact, that was probably why Kratos insisted on them keeping their thoughts to themselves for now. Talking was a distraction.

The inconsistency in Kratos' policing, however, was irksome - even though Matt cringed inwardly at the mere idea of Colette getting slapped.

After leaving Aisha and Linar's house earlier that day, the group had gone to find the mayor. Raine had surprised them all by volunteering to perform the dance in Aisha's place. With permission from the mayor to do so, she had returned to Aisha's to learn the dance and change clothes, leaving the rest of them to check in at one of the inns and come up with a plan in case things turned south.

The mere thought that this might, and probably would, get violent had Matt set on edge. This was entirely different from the fights with Desians, bandits, and monsters he had been seeing and taking part in. Desians and bandits were only human (so to speak), and monsters were near enough to normal animals that they were familiar and at least somewhat predictable. Here, they were taking on the unknown, like diving headfirst into murky water. They did not know what might lurk beneath the surface, or how deep the water was.

_And Raine volunteered to be the bait..._  Matt gripped his guisarme a little tighter, feeling slightly sick with anticipation.

Slowly and deliberately, yet somewhat gracefully, Raine completed the dance, striking the dais with the ceremonial staff and kneeling on the stone surface.

After a few seconds of silence, the wind picked up, growing suddenly from a strong breeze to a howling gale, so that those watching had to brace themselves and shield their eyes. Then, with a flash of light, the air was relatively still again.

Unsure what to expect, Matt opened his eyes. Floating in the air before Raine was the most bizarre creature he had yet seen. It had an upper body like a human's, with violet skin, long arms ending in clawed hands, a pair of conjoined, bat-like wings on its back, and a horned head with a mouth full of fangs. Where its legs should have been was an enormous scythe-like blade, even longer than Matt was tall. It appeared to be hovering atop a miniature cyclone, and the look in its eyes... There was a cold malevolence to them as it looked over Raine, assessing her.

"I have come for the girl," it stated in an impossibly low, gravelly voice that seemed to curdle Matt's blood, compounding his fear for Raine's safety.

Colette murmured something inaudible to herself, then cried out as the being raised one of its arms over its head. "No! Professor! That's not the guardian of the seal, it's an evil creature!"

At her words, the group rushed up on top of the dais, drawing their weapons and eliciting shouts and screams of alarm from the townspeople.

Lloyd reached Raine first. "Guardian!" The shield went up just as the thing's claws came down on her. Lloyd flinched at the impact, but the attack glanced off the tech harmlessly.

Surprised and infuriated at the interruption, the creature bellowed at Lloyd and prepared to attack again. It noticed Matt jumping toward itself, his bill leveled at its face.

"Sonic Thrust!"

The false Summon Spirit crossed its arms in an X, catching the metal spike on its wrists. The airborne tech blew the freely-floating monster back across the dais, killing Matt's forward momentum at the same time.

" _AH!_ " He fell awkwardly back to the ground, trying to land on his feet but winding up flat on his face in front of Lloyd and Raine.

"Get up!" Kratos demanded as he ran past him to engage the creature. "Don't do that again!"

"Yeah, got it," Matt grunted, hastily standing back up and moving into position. He hesitated when he started to assess the situation.

Lloyd and Kratos were both fighting the creature at close range, with Colette and Genis supporting them with long-range attacks while Raine stood by ready to heal. This had been the plan in the event their opponent had a physical form like this. Matt himself was supposed to stay at mid-range and harass it with his spear. However, between the long reach of its arms and the blade on its lower body, he would not be able to hit it without entering its striking distance. Combined with the speed and ferocity it fought with, switching from offense to defense and back at a dizzying pace, Matt's lower movement speed would be a disadvantage his weapon's reach could not compensate for.

In short, he feared he would be cut into ribbons if he got too close.

Kratos noticed him watching with a dazed look on his face at a moment when the creature was reeling after a Stalagmite spell from Genis. "Matthew!" he yelled. "Keep to the plan!"

" _Whoa!_ " With a swipe of the monster's arm, Lloyd found himself caught in a small but powerful whirlwind, spinning helplessly through the air before being dropped to the ground again.

"Ah! Right!" Matt exclaimed frantically. He ran into place while Kratos attacked the monster, buying Lloyd time to find his feet again. Disadvantaged or not, he was expected to help, and if they did not defeat this thing quickly, someone might be killed.

Just as he got in position, he noticed the monster glancing at him over its shoulder. It promptly swung its blade at Kratos, forcing him to go on the defensive, and swept him up with another whirlwind. In the moment it took the mercenary to get back up, it rushed Matt, its blade poised to strike.

Matt raised his guisarme defensively. "Testudo!" The monster's blade raked the energy shield that sprang up around him.  _Thanks, Kratos..._

All too soon, his Testudo faded, and the monster's claws were arcing toward him. He blocked, and its hand connected with the shaft, but the impact knocked him away. His head hit the dais as he skidded across it.

...

"First Aid!"

Matt's eyes snapped open, as if at Raine's words, but he instantly realized it had been the healing spell she had cast. What should have been a splitting headache was already little more than a dull throb.

He jumped up to his feet and looked around. The sun had not yet fully set, and the others were still fighting against the wind monster.  _Couldn't have been more than a minute, then..._  He almost charged back into the fray, until he realized he had dropped his weapon at some point. He cast about for it, finally spotting it in the hands of a man standing beside the dais. He sprinted to him, recognizing him as Rayford.

"If you can't kill it now," the older man said solemnly as he offered him the bill, "you'll have doomed us all."

"Working on it," Matt panted, taking his weapon and rushing back into the fight.

Lloyd went on the attack, hacking and slashing at their enemy. It blocked each strike with its blade and swatted away one of Colette's rings with one hand. Matt took several jabs at it, only for it to parry with its other hand.

"Light Spear!"

"Stalagmite!"

Kratos finally broke the creature's guard from behind, while Genis' spell pummeled it from below. Stunned, it fell to the ground, its personal cyclone gone and its purple skin now stained red in some places.

_It bleeds?_

"Don't let it get up!" Lloyd shouted.

Kratos, being the closest to the monster, led the charge. "Follow me! Light Spear!"

"Angel Feathers!"

"Sonic Thrust!"

"Go!" Genis cried as Lloyd ran up. His twin swords, to Matt's astonishment, began buzzing and crackling with electricity.

"Lightning Tiger Blade!" Lloyd moved as if it was a regular Tiger Blade, but each time it hit, lightning struck the monster.

At that moment, Matt felt for the first time the giddy, excited feeling of being in battle. He and his friends were in a fight for their lives, against an abomination that had been terrorizing an entire city, and they were  _winning_.

He ran forward to continue the onslaught, a wild grin forming across his mouth.

"Get back!" Kratos warned.

With a roar, the monster spun itself around like a compass needle, whipping up another whirlwind that blew everyone away. Matt was too close and too slow; its blade sliced open his shins in a flash of searing pain before he was sent rolling like a tumbleweed.

Once he stopped, he gingerly lifted his head to see what was happening. The monster was upright again and surrounded by a ring of green light. In a flash, the ring faded, and Genis shouted in pain as a Wind Blade attack surrounded him.

Matt tried to push himself up again, but as soon as he put any weight on his legs, he cried out and his knees buckled. The cuts on his shins seemed to burn. Worse, the monster was again coming straight for him. He started trying to push himself away with his hands, panic welling up in his gut.

"First aid!" Raine called.

For the second time in that battle, relief washed over his wounds. Immediately, he rolled out of the way of the creature's claws and scrambled to his feet, his guisarme raised.

"First aid!" This time, it was Kratos healing Genis.

By now, the monster was a sight to behold. Cuts, puncture wounds, and burns covered its body; one of its horns was missing, its wings were tattered, and it was bleeding from the mouth, turning its own fangs red.

For all that, its injuries did not seem to hinder it in the slightest.

It swung at Matt with its claws again. He parried, redirecting the blow instead of blocking outright this time. It took another swing, and he batted it away. He took a step back, trying to space himself for another Sonic Thrust.

At the same time, the monster started cartwheeling toward him, its blade whistling through the air.

Matt's heart skipped a beat and raised his spear for an overhead block. " _Testudo!_ "

The tech activated, and the scythe slammed into it. The attack continued, striking the energy shield at a rapidly increasing speed, and Matt worriedly began to wonder when it would stop.

It broke through in a matter of seconds. The shield seemed to burst, throwing Matt backward a short distance. Somehow, he managed to stay on his feet this time. He tried to get in position to attack the monster as it slowed to a stop, but to his dismay, his bill was now broken in two in his hands.

"Sword Rain!"

The monster roared loudly; Lloyd's rapid-fire attack left several new holes in its side. Furious, it backhanded Lloyd away and floated after him.

_What do I do now?!_  Matt wondered desperately. The pointed half of his weapon was now too short and unbalanced to be of any use, and the other half was no better than a broom handle.  _Wait - I still have my quarterstaff,_  he realized.  _But..._

"Matthew, fall back!" Kratos barked. "Demon Fang!"

_... Yeah, that'd make the most sense._  Matt nodded and retreated back to the front of the dais, keeping an eye on the monster as he went. He felt bruised and battered, but the worst of his injuries had been healed almost on the spot.

When he stepped down from the dais, Lloyd and Kratos were attacking the monster in tandem, taking turns forcing it to defend itself while Colette and Genis harassed it from a distance. A Ray Thrust from Colette slipped past its guard to score a direct hit, making it flinch. This time, both Lloyd and Kratos led the charge as the four combatants hit it with their strongest attacks.

" _Cross Thrust!_ "

"Stalagmite!"

"Angel Feathers!"

All the while, Raine was free to cast her healing and support magic. The most serious wounds were taken care of almost immediately, with Kratos assisting her when necessary. Her Barrier spells made them all more and more resistant to the monster's attacks as the battle wore on, so that its Wind Blade barely scratched Colette, while the monster itself was finally showing signs of being worn down. It had to muster strength even to throw a punch, and its guard became increasingly sloppy.

On one hand, seeing this thing about to be destroyed after all the trouble it had caused was satisfying to Matt; on the other, the fact that he could not fight in this last stage of the battle caused a burning feeling inside him.

Finally, after dodging one last swing of its blade, at a moment when it was wide open, Lloyd hit it with Tiger Blade, laying open its torso with each strike. It collapsed to the ground and, on impact, vanished in a puff of dust.

"Whoa," Matt grunted, surprised.  _What WAS that thing?_  He quickly shook his head and jumped back up the steps of the dais, grinning excitedly, with Linar on his heels. His friends were standing around watching the place where the monster had fallen, all panting hard. "Guys, you did it!"

That broke them out of their stupor; they regarded him for a moment before they started putting away their weapons, various expressions of satisfaction on their faces. Well, Kratos looked the same as ever, but he relaxed visibly.

"Fantastic!" Linar blurted, and he ran up to eagerly shake Raine's hand. "You were fantastic, Raine!"

Kratos approached Matt and folded his arms, expression deadpan. "Don't talk as if you had no part in this," he said. "You fought at our side for as long as you could."

Matt shrugged sheepishly. "I... guess so, sure."

"All things considered, you did well," the mercenary continued. "We will discuss how you can improve in the morning."

Matt winced, and Lloyd groaned loudly. "You mean we have to train in the morning after all that?!"

Kratos turned to address Lloyd's protest; Raine, following Linar away from the group, caught Matt's shoulder as she passed him. "Take this," she instructed, putting something in his hand. "You need it."

Matt opened his hand as she walked away; an orange gel sat in his palm.

He quickly realized what Raine had meant. "Oh." He popped the gel in his mouth on the spot. It had been some time since he had thought to ask either her or Genis about his mana level. It must have gotten dangerously low - well, for any other human, anyway.

He glanced around at the crowd surrounding the dais. Most of them were quietly whispering things to each other, while a few simply stared in stunned silence - some of them clearly close to tears.

_That's weird... Shouldn't they be happier about this? They don't have to make any more-_

His gaze met Harley's. The half-elf was staring intently at him.

"Crud."

* * *

"Hills and ledges give a better vantage point of one's surroundings and give a height advantage over most opponents. However, they also present greater danger of falling and expose one to ranged attacks. Ditches or trenches can provide cover from such attacks."

Matt spoke aloud as he wrote this down on paper so Lloyd would not need to read over his shoulder. He sat on his bed, propped up against the wall with his notebook open on his lap, while Lloyd sat at the desk sharpening his swords. Genis and Colette occupied themselves by playing Go Fish with an incomplete card deck they had found in the nightstand.

Lloyd paused in his work and turned partway to look at him incredulously. "Are you sure that goes with 'environment?'"

"Elevation is part of the terrain," Matt answered, looking up from the page. When Lloyd's forehead scrunched up, he chuckled and elaborated. "Terrain basically covers everything about the ground, and the ground is an aspect of the environment."

"But what if we're fighting inside a building?" Lloyd argued. "Like a human ranch?"

"I don't follow," Matt said, frowning.

Lloyd turned his chair to face him fully. "Buildings are made by people, right? The environment has to do with nature, like plants and animals."

Matt sighed and let his head thump against the wall behind him.

"No way! You actually remembered that lesson!" Genis exclaimed with a grin.

"Of course I did," Lloyd said proudly. "It wasn't boring like math and history are."

"But it's been years since the Professor taught us that," said Colette, smiling. "You have a really good memory!"

Matt shook his head and pretended to write more on the paper, struggling to keep a straight face. "When working with Lloyd, let him make his own plan so you can get yours done faster."

"Hey! Don't write that!" Lloyd protested, jumping up from his chair.

Matt's poker face broke, and he held up the book for Lloyd to see. "I'm just messing with you."

Lloyd scowled, but could not hide the smile that broke through. "Dork."

"'Environment' can be used to refer to the outdoors and all that," Genis explained, "but in general..."

Matt continued working while Genis clarified the issue for Lloyd. Conversations like this had played out more than once before. Even when they were sarcastic about it, there were times when Lloyd's...  _unique_  insight surprised the others, particularly Genis and Raine. Over the weeks, Matt had learned there were times when they were genuinely impressed with the teen's input. Between these instances and the defused bomb sitting by the Asgard Ruin, he was starting to understand why.

Lloyd had brought up a valid point, despite his misunderstanding. Fighting indoors  _would_  be very different from fighting out in the field like they usually did. Matt resolved to make a note of this later; the report was turning out to be lengthy, but he figured the more they wrote on the subject, the better.

Despite his joking, Matt recognized that Lloyd's ideas were turning out to be invaluable to the assignment. Lloyd was no writer, and he had to have what Matt thought to be simple words defined for him, but he was sharper than his comparative lack of knowledge indicated. They each saw things differently, building on each other's ideas to more completely describe these hypothetical battlefields.

At last, long after Lloyd had finished with his swords and joined the card game, Matt was satisfied with the paper. He tore the pages out of his notebook and stood up to stretch his legs, grunting as his bruises protested. "I think that about does it."

"Finally," Lloyd groaned. "That took forever!"

"You didn't even write it," Genis pointed out, sounding bored. "Colette, any sevens?" he asked before Lloyd could argue the point.

"Hmm... no, go fish," the Chosen answered. "Any queens, Genis?" she asked as he drew a card.

The elf froze for a second, and then he practically threw the new card at her. "How do you keep doing that?!"

Matt chuckled and grabbed his bag. "I'm going out for a little bit," he announced over the commotion. "Let Kratos know if he gets back first."

The three gave him a collective "see you later" as he left the room.

The sun had long since gone down, and the streets were mostly empty. Matt walked around to the back side of the building, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and started climbing up the cliff wall the inn backed up against. He went up to the roof and carefully made his way to the front of the building to look out at the rest of Asgard. Satisfied, he sat down, letting his legs dangle over the edge, took out his journal and pencil, and wrote by the light illuminating the inn's windmill and crescent-moon sign.

XXX

June 17

What a day. After training this morning...

* * *

... So Raine is working with Linar to decipher the tablet tonight while the rest of us stay at the inn.

XXX

Matt paused, content with his summary of the day's events, and thought for a moment before continuing.

XXX

It was good to see that Byron got here safely and to meet his family, but what he said about Harley on our way down from the ruin just doesn't sit right with me. I know as well as the next guy that the Desians are monsters, and I really can't blame him for hating them. But like I realized earlier, not all half-elves are Desians. More than that, even though what Harley tried to do was stupid... he did it to save his friend. His HUMAN friend. I tried to tell that to Byron, but he just got all mad about it. I hope I don't have to hate half-elves to be friends with him. Harley can actually be pretty chill.

XXX

Matt sighed as he recalled these events. Harley, although suspicious of him now, had been much more friendly than before now that the fake Summon Spirit was gone. He had been following their group back down to town for whatever reason, until they ran into Byron. The old veteran had chased Harley away on sight; the only reason he would give for doing so had been, "His kind blighted my homeland for generations! And after what you went through at the ranch, you would tolerate his company? Don't you remember your friends from the pilgrimage?! I'm surprised at you, lad."

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and moved on.

XXX

I still haven't been able to make anything of what I remembered this morning. Not surprising, I guess. With all the times I've hit my head since getting amnesia, I'm more surprised I haven't forgotten absolutely everything. Except... now that I think about it, I guess I HAVE remembered more each time I hit my head. Might be worth asking Raine how many poundings my brain can take before it kills me. I can't imagine Kratos would have any problems helping out. Raine would probably blow up at me, though.

XXX

Matt snickered to himself at this. He could just imagine the professor berating him for having such a ludicrous idea, with Kratos standing by, expressionless, cracking his knuckles. The fact that it had been Raine who had almost "blown up" the Breaker made the mental picture he was forming even funnier.

The bomb. Lloyd's tinkering. They clicked in his mind.

He had learned to do the same thing. It had not been with bombs, though, nor clocks or music boxes, nor anything else Lloyd would have seen growing up.

He had done it with  _airplanes._

He had taken panels from their wings to look inside them, just as Lloyd had done to the Breaker. He had been taught how to work with wires in electrical circuits. He had used files and blades and hammers and many other tools besides while learning how to make flying machines work.

He had seen  _none of that_  since hitting his head.

Matt sat there at the edge of the roof, frozen, dizzy and light-headed. There were no airplanes here. In the last month and a half, he had not seen or heard them, ever. There was not even any electricity outside of the human ranches, it seemed.

The human ranches.

His mana signature.

Magnius.

_"_ This  _is something completely different. I wouldn't be surprised if it came from a different world."_  The words resonated through his memory, echoing softly in his mind.

_...What if... What if what he said was true?_  Magnius' scarred visage, stuck in its malicious smirk, drifted across Matt's mind.

He shivered, disturbed to the point of feeling queasy, and started recording this newest revelation.


End file.
